Grumpy Old Man with an Attitude Change
by Rettop92
Summary: Fire took her family and landed her in the care of a grumpy old man. Five months later the adventure begins as two Secondary School teachers find a blue box in a junkyard and Trixy's only alternative is to hold on tight and enjoy the ride. It is bound to get crazy fast. NOT Dr/OC
1. An Unearthly Child

**Hi people! Re-uploading this with a few small changes. An important note is that this is NOT a Doctor/OC, at the moment for soon to be obvious reasons, and it never will be. There might be some other romance though ;)**

**Now get ready for an extreamly long story before it is all finished, if ever...**

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An Unearthly Child

A white room with walls covered in round things cut out into the wall stood void of life. In the middle of the room was an advanced looking console and around the room were some more furniture that made it look a bit more lived in. A chair, a table, a clock, it wasn't much but it was home to three people, two of which were just coming back. The doors opened and two girls hurried inside, the older stopping for a moment to make sure they weren't followed. The older of the two, looking to be about fifteen, had short brown hair and eyes that seemed to glitter with starlight. She pulled her jacket off and dropped it on a table while rubbing her arms as if cold.

"You still haven't told me how school was today, Trixy" the she asked.

"It was okay, no one asked about the gloves today or told me to take them off" the younger girl answered.

Susan Foreman shook her head at the girl who was her grandfather's recent ward and who she had decided would be her little sister. The girl looked to be six years old with shoulder length brown hair and crystal blue eyes. The girl's hands were currently bare but most of the time she covered them in fingerless gloves claiming a skin disease. Older than she looked, a deductive mind and a tongue that was sharp in more ways than one when you got her to open her mouth Trixy Flint fit right into the TARDIS. It was just taking her new guardian some time to realise it.

"It's an improvement" Trixy told Susan. "Just took five months"

"You okay?" Susan said sitting down beside the little girl on the floor, their backs against the white walls.

"Yeah, I would just much rather have been stranded somewhere they were more accepting" Trixy sighed with a pout. "Music is okay though"

"Don't worry, Grandfather will have the TARDIS fixed eventually, we just have to wait a bit longer" Susan said. "I'll just put our stuff away, tell –"

"The Doctor that you are on your room if he returns, I know" Trixy said.

Susan smiled at the girl before heading out from the control room leaving Trixy alone. The girl had pulled a book out of her bag before Susan took it and now sunk into the story she was completely captured by. She had read almost a chapter when voices were heard from outside.

"Ian, look at this" a female voice said and Trixy's eyes narrowed.

She put away her book and moved towards the door to listen in on what was going on.

"It's a police box!" a male voice said. "What on earth's it doing here? These things are usually on the street. Feel it. Feel it. Do you feel it?"

"It's a faint vibration" the woman said.

Trixy was intrigued. Someone was outside the ship and they seemed to be touching the TARDIS feeling the faint vibrations most people didn't seem to notice.

"It's alive!" the man said making Trixy grin at his enthusiasm, though the words rung true. "It's not connected to anything, unless it's through the floor" he continued and Trixy had to like the way he thought, for not knowing about aliens and similar.

"Look, I've had enough. Let's go and find a policeman" the female said and Trixy bit her lip, not good.

"Yes, all right" the man said but before they could leave she heard a cough, who could that be?

"Is that her?" the woman said and Trixy had to wonder who they were looking for in a junkyard.

"That's not her. Quick" Trixy heard the man said and she moved away slightly from the door as she heard someone fumbling with it, the Doctor was home.

"There you are, Grandfather" Susan said but the Doctor did not enter the box like the girls expected.

"Excuse me" came the man's voice again and the Doctor was quick to move away from the door.

"What are you doing here?" the Doctor's voice was heard.

"We're looking for a young girl" the unknown man said, Susan was looking at Trixy confused as the younger girl sat by the door listening closely.

"We?" the Doctor asked.

"Good evening" the woman said probably coming out from a hiding place of some sort.

"What do you want?" the Doctor asked.

"One of our pupils, Susan Foreman, came into this yard" the man said.

Trixy frowned as she listen to the conversation proceed. From what she could gather these two were Susan's teachers and they had followed her home that day. The Doctor and the man, Ian she thought the woman had called him, kept going back and forth with the Doctor getting distracted by junk and both of them insulting the other's attitude. Ian seemed logical though, pointed out flaws in what the Doctor said when he claimed Susan wasn't there. Things seemed to begin on the messy and confusing path when the teachers threatened to go and find a policeman.

"I think we'd better go and fetch a policeman" the man probably called Ian said from outside.

"Very well" the Doctor said, probably thinking he was perfectly safe.

"And you're coming with us" 'Ian' said.

"Oh, am I? I don't think so, young man. No, I don't think so" the Doctor said.

"We can't force him" the woman said.

"But we can't leave him here. Doesn't it seem obvious to you he's got her locked up in there? Look at it. There's no door handle. There must be a secret lock somewhere" the man said.

"What are you doing over there?" Susan asked looking at Trixy, not hearing how her teachers called for her through the door while Trixy got names for the two outside, Mr Chesterton and Miss Wright.

Susan moved towards the console and started to open the door just as her teachers started to leave.

"What are you doing out there?" Susan asked.

"Ark, NO!" Trixy shouted rushing for the console but it was too late.

"She is in there!" the man shouted.

"Close the door!" the Doctor's voice came through the door.

"Barbara!" the man shouted as a woman ran through the door and stopped soon after she entered the ship.

The woman looked to be in her late twenties, brown hair and dark eyes. Barbara Wright from what Trixy gathered. She looked around the white room completely stunned. The man, same age, also dark hair and eyes came in after her along with the Doctor. Ian Chesterton looked even more stunned than Barbara.

"Close the door, Susan" the Doctor said and Susan flicked the switch doing as he asked. "I believe these people are known to you".

"They're two of my schoolteachers. What are you doing here?" Susan asked looking at her teachers.

"Where are we?" Barbara asked astonished.

"They must have followed you. That ridiculous school. I knew something like this would happen if we stayed in one place too long" the Doctor complained.

Trixy frowned, Susan had at least chosen to go to school, she had not had that choice. In some stupid act of Susan's Trixy had also somehow ended up engaged in the British school system of the mid-20th century. Neither of them were really sure how it had happened.

"But why should they follow me?" Susan asked.

"Because you can't pass for human for an extended period in this time" Trixy mumbled to quiet for anyone to hear.

"Is this really where you live, Susan?" Barbara asked, Trixy was starting to wonder if they had noticed her yet.

"Yes" Susan answered.

"And what's wrong with it?" the Doctor asked defensively.

"But it was just a telephone box" Ian said looking around in disbelief.

"Perhaps" the Doctor said.

"And this is your grandfather?" Barbara asked. "And… little sister?" she added spotting Trixy.

"Yes" Susan said technically just answering half of the statement but that way they couldn't remove Trixy from the Doctor's care.

"But why didn't you tell us that?" Barbara asked the Doctor.

"I don't discuss my private life with strangers" the Doctor answered.

"But it was a police telephone box. I walked all around it. Barbara, you saw me" Ian said still stuck in his amazement.

"You don't deserve any explanations. You pushed your way in here uninvited and unwelcome" the Doctor said.

"I think we ought to leave" Barbara said gripping Ian's lapels, the Doctor didn't sound all that welcoming.

"No, just a minute. I know this is absurd, but I feel" Ian said walking over to the Doctor who was studying a clock, he must be a science interested man from what Trixy gathered, what with the way he was acting.

The two males talked over each other at the same time ending with Ian saying he wanted to understand as the Doctor walked away from the clock.

"Science teacher?" Trixy whispered from where she stood beside Susan, certain the older girl would hear her.

Susan looked down at her and gave a single nod, she was quite confused by how easily the seemingly six year old made such connections.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. By the way, Susan, Trixy, I managed to find a replacement for that faulty filament. It's an amateur job, but I think it'll serve" the Doctor said taking his coat and scarf off and putting them on a chair.

"It's an illusion. It must be" Ian said as the Doctor plugged in whatever he had found in the console.

"What is he talking about now?" the Doctor asked.

"The ship?" Trixy suggested lowly from where she now was next to the Doctor.

"What are you doing here?" Susan asked once more.

"You don't understand, so you find excuses. Illusions, indeed? You say you can't fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms?" the Doctor said and Trixy frowned at the strange question.

"No" Ian gave the answer most humans would have.

"But you've discovered television, haven't you?" the Doctor countered.

Trixy looked up at the alien, what did that have to do with it? She knew what a television was even though they hadn't been any televisions in the world where she had lived up until her parents' deaths roughly five months ago. What did the quite strange device have to do with this tough?

"Yes" Ian answered confused over the same thing as Trixy.

"Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn't you?" the Doctor asked.

"Is that really the same thing?" Trixy asked, the concept had never seemed impossible to her but then… her life had never been what most would call normal.

"Well, yes, but I still don't know –" Ian said not seeming to hear the girl.

"Not quite clear, is it" the Doctor interrupted him. "I can see by your face that you're not certain. You don't understand. And I knew you wouldn't. Never mind" he continued turning to the console. "Now then, which switch was it? No. No, no. Ah yes, that is it. The point is not whether you understand. What is going to happen to you, hmm?" he turned back to the humans again. "They'll tell everybody about the ship now" he told Susan.

"Ship?" Ian asked confused.

"Yes, yes, ship. This doesn't roll along on wheels, you know" the Doctor said.

"You mean it moves?" Barbara asked in surprise that was also visible on Ian's face.

"The TARDIS can go anywhere" Susan told her teachers as if it was the most self-evident thing in the world, which it obviously was to her.

"TARDIS? I don't understand you, Susan" the woman said sounding slightly bemused.

"Well, I made up the name TARDIS from the initials, Time And Relative Dimension In Space" Susan explained. "I thought you'd both understand when you saw the different dimensions inside from those outside"

"Is such science even around at this point in time?" Trixy asked the Doctor who gave a short shake of his head to her. "Shouldn't Ark have realised that in school?"

The Doctor didn't answer, which wasn't anything new to the girl, so she glanced back at the situation at hand where Ian was just summarising the situation. Quite accurately.

"Just let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard, it can move anywhere in time and space?" he said.

"Yes" Susan agreed followed by the Doctor's "Quite so" as the older alien turned from the console towards the humans.

"But that's ridiculous" Ian said.

"Why won't they believe us?" Susan asked her grandfather desperately.

"How can we?" Barbara asked.

"Now, now, don't get exasperated, Susan. Remember the Red Indian. When he saw the first steam train, his savage mind thought it an illusion, too" the Doctor said and Ian was about to respond when Susan cut in.

"But Trixy believed us!" she exclaimed.

"You're treating us like children" Ian got in before any more comments could be made about Trixy's origin.

"Am I? The children of my civilisation would be insulted" the Doctor said.

"Your civilisation?" Ian asked.

"Yes, my civilisation. I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it. Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day we shall get back. Yes, one day. One day" the Doctor explained just to turn thoughtful towards the end of his speech before patting Susan on the shoulder and turning back to the console.

"It's true. Every word of it's true. You don't know what you've done coming in here" Susan told her teachers. "Grandfather, let them go now, please. Look, if they don't understand, they can't, they can't hurt us at all. I understand these people better than you. Their minds reject things they don't understand" Susan pleaded with her grandfather but Trixy got a strange feeling it wouldn't work.

"No" the Doctor told her while walking away as Susan turned away from him looking desperate.

"He can't keep us here" Ian said lowly to Barbara.

"Susan, listen to me. Can't you see that all this is an illusion? It's a game that you, your sister and grandfather are playing, if you like, but you can't expect us to believe it" Barbara said to the supposed teenager.

"It's not a game!" Susan exclaimed.

"But Susan, it's –" Barbara started.

"It's not! Look, I love your school. I love England in the twentieth century. The last five months have been the happiest of my life" Susan said.

"But you are one of us. You look like us, you sound like us" Barbara tried to argue.

"I was born in another time, another world" Susan said evenly.

"Now look here, Susan, you" Ian started but stopped, almost as if he had seen some kind of truth in Susan's face. "Oh, come on, Barbara, let's get out of here" he said instead turning to his colleague and leading her towards the doors.

"It's no use, you can't get out. He won't let you go" Susan said following them.

The two teachers started running their hands along the doors trying to find a handle of something of the kind while the Doctor chuckled from where he stood further into the room.

"He closed the doors from over there. I saw him" Ian said moving back towards the console, Trixy was really tempted to assist him but had the strange feeling she shouldn't. "Now, which is it? Which is it? Which control operates the door?" the man asked as he moved around the console, the Doctor still laughing quietly at him.

"You still think it's all an illusion?" the alien asked amused by it all as Ian made a full circle around the console and came up to him.

"I know that free movement time and space is a scientific dream I don't expect to find solved in a junkyard" the man said sounding slightly angry.

"Your arrogance is nearly as great as your ignorance" the Doctor said.

"You do know humanity haven't even been to the moon yet?" Trixy asked, of course the concept of the TARDIS wound seem impossible when that was a fact.

"Will you open the door?" Ian asked after a quick glance at the girl but the Doctor just laughed. "Open the door! Susan, will you help us?" he asked turning to his student instead.

"I mustn't" the supposed teenager said sounding like she was fighting with herself.

"Very well, then. I'll have to risk it myself" Ian said turning back to the console and looking it over trying to figure it out.

"I can't stop you" the Doctor said amused.

"Don't touch it! It's alive!" Susan shouted just as Ian did just that ending up with a big electric shock from the console.

"Ian!" Barbara cried hurrying forwards to the man while Trixy frowned at the console, what hidden agenda did the TARDIS have in not letting them go? "What on earth do you think you're doing?" the woman asked the Doctor with a hand on Ian's shoulder as Susan sat before him and Trixy stood beside them all.

She might not know these people but that wouldn't stop her from helping. She just wondered what was going to come out of this mess the Doctor was creating for himself and all of them.

"Grandfather, let them go now, please" Susan said still on the floor by Ian.

"And by tomorrow we shall be a public spectacle, a subject for news and idle gossip" the Doctor said looking around the group.

"But they won't say anything" Susan said and Trixy was quite inkling to agree with her, who would believe them if they did?

Barbara leaned down by Ian's side to help him up while the aliens were talking behind them, Trixy swallowing and putting her gloves back on as she waited for something to happen because the tension in the air clearly told her something would.

"My dear child, of course they will. Put yourself in their place. They are bound to make some sort of a complaint to the authorities, or at the very least talk to their friends. If I do let them go, Susan, you realise of course we must go, too" the Doctor said and Trixy bit her lip, she wouldn't really mind that.

The young girl was getting really tired of the time they were in. She was stuck pretending both to be younger and dumber than she really was. She didn't fit in here, not at all. She had lived up until five months ago just learning things that could actually be useful from her parents and suddenly she was stuck learning letters and numbers, it was too easy. Too much staying in a place where people barely expected her to be able to tie her shoes.

"No, Grandfather, we've had all this out before" Susan complained.

"There's no alternative, child" the Doctor told her.

"I want to stay! But they're both kind people. Why won't you trust them? All you've got to do is ask them to promise to keep our secret" Susan argued looking to her teachers briefly before turning back to her grandfather.

"It's out of the question" the older alien said.

"I won't go, Grandfather. I won't leave the twentieth century. I'd rather leave the TARDIS and you" Susan said and Trixy's eyes widened, that was unexpected.

"Now you're being sentimental and childish" the Doctor said obviously not believing her.

"No, I mean it" Susan said still sounding desperate.

"Very well. Then you must go with them. I'll open the door" the Doctor said and Trixy saw that he was up to something at once, there was no way the Doctor would let Susan go just like that.

"Are you coming, Susan?" Barbara asked as the Doctor started to move around the console.

Susan looked desperately between her grandfather and her teachers before her eyes fell on Trixy who had desperately grabbed onto the edge of the console and her mind connected the dots.

"Oh, no, Grandfather! No!" she shouted rushing towards the alien in question in an attempt to stop him from taking of, because it wasn't the door switch he had touched.

"Let me go" the Doctor said and Susan lashed onto his back and tried to stop him.

"No!" the younger alien said once more.

"Get back to the ship, child. Hold it" the Doctor said getting her of himself and Susan rushed to grab another part of the console as the ship started to shake, Ian and Barbara having a hard time staying upright.

Trixy almost whished the console had been made of something softer than it was to give her claws a chance to dig into it but instead she lost her grip and ended up grabbing onto the leg of the chair instead. How the chair wasn't moving would remain a mystery but Barbara eventually landed in it with Ian joining Trixy on the floor beside it. The Doctor and Susan meanwhile managed to remain standing while holding onto the console as they made their way through the time vortex. As everything calmed down Trixy carefully pulled herself forwards to look at the scanner. It showed a bare and desolated landscape outside, where in the world had they ended up?

**First chapter done, now let's move on to the start of the action!**


	2. The Cave of Skulls

**And here is chapter 2, also re-uploaded. I will trying to keep chapters coming but school is first now these last weeks before graduation. Anyway, here's the chapter, Allons-y!**

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The Cave of Skulls

Trixy pulled herself to her feet as the Doctor and Susan started checking the readings on the console, Barbara starting to stir at the same time. She soon woke up and started to look around. She threw a quick glance at Trixy who showed no sign of being hurt and as such the woman turned to the man by her feet.

"Ian? Ian" she said leaning forward to shake him awake.

"I'm all right" the man said pulling himself to a half sitting position with the help of the chair. "I must have hit my head" he continued rubbing the back of his head before pulling his hand in front of his face to check for non-existing blood as he moved to lean against the chair and then continued up on his knees. "The movement's stopped"

Barbara looked to the Doctor and Susan who were going over the scanners, Ian still had his back to them and Trixy rose on her toes by the side of the console to try and see what was going on.

"The base is steady" Susan said turning to the next scan as she finished speaking.

"Layer of sand, rock formation. Good" the Doctor said as Ian also turned his head to look at the two aliens as they spoke.

"We've left 1963" Susan said looking up at the screen and Trixy made her way around the console to be able to see as well.

"Oh, yes, undoubtedly. I'll be able to tell you where presently" the Doctor said "Zero? That's not right. I'm afraid this yearometer is not calculating properly"

"Or you have it turned to Earth years, there is a year zero then" Trixy suggested looking up at him.

"Hm! Well, anyway, the journey's finished" the Doctor said considering the idea as he looked up at the screen again before turning to his human passengers. "What are you doing down there?"

"What have you done?" Barbara asked wisely choosing not to respond to the alien's words.

"Barbara, you don't believe all this nonsense" Ian said looking up at her.

"Well, look at the scanner screen" Susan suggested.

"Yes, look up there. They don't understand and I suspect they don't want to" the Doctor said as the humans got to their feet, Ian with a little help from Barbara. "Well, there you are. A new world for you"

It wasn't a very exciting image on the screen, just bare sand and rocks with a range of mountains in the distance. Quite boring according to Trixy but at least it wasn't school in the 1960s. It could however be almost anywhere.

"Sand and rock?" Ian asked sounding disbelieving, if they were going to fool around with something like this surely they could have taken a more exciting image?

"Yes, that's the immediate view outside the ship" the Doctor agreed.

"But where are we?" Barbara asked.

"You mean that's what we'll see when we go outside?" Ian asked and the Doctor nodded.

"Yes, you'll see it for yourself" Susan said once more trying to convince them

"Ha! I don't believe it" Ian said looking at the screen once more but he was starting to look a bit desperate now.

"You really are a stubborn young man, aren't you?" the Doctor said turning to him.

"All right, show me some proof. Give me some concrete evidence" Ian argued and the Doctor turned and walked away from them and the man turned to Susan instead. "I'm sorry, Susan, I don't want to hurt you, but it's time you were brought back to reality"

"But you're wrong, Mister Chesterton" the girl said.

"They are saying I'm a charlatan" the Doctor said touching Susan's shoulder from behind. "What concrete evidence would satisfy you?" he asked as he walked around the console.

"Just open the doors, Doctor Foreman" Ian gave the simplest solution of them all.

"Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?" the Doctor asked himself.

Trixy's jaw almost dropped. The Doctor himself had asked that question first? Her parents had told her about the first question and now she heard it from the alien's mouth. She never had gotten the full story about that one though, she wasn't sure her parents knew. How did Ian know to call him doctor though?

"They're so sure, Ian" Barbara said looking up at the man who was about half a head taller than her.

"Yes, I know" Ian agreed and were about to continue but the woman interrupted him.

"And remember the difference between the outside of the police box and the inside" she continued her arguments.

"Yes, I know, but" Ian said to her before turning back to the Doctor. "Are you going to open the doors or aren't you?"

"No" the Doctor said calmly almost before Ian had stopped speaking.

"You see?" he said turning back to the woman by his side.

"Not until I'm quite sure it's safe to do so" the Doctor continued as he started to check the readings. "Well, yes, good. Yes, it is, it's good. Excellent, excellent. You've got the radiation counter there. What's it read?" he asked Susan.

"It's reading normal, Grandfather" Susan answered.

"Splendid, splendid. Well, I think I'll take my Geiger counter with me in any case. So, you still challenge me, young man?" the Doctor said looking up at Ian as he walked to the next section of the console gripping his labels.

"Well, just open the doors and prove your point" Ian said walking up to meet with the man halfway around the console from Barbara.

"You're so narrow-minded, aren't you? Don't be so insular" the alien said turning his back to the console still holding the labels.

"Grandfather, do you know where we are?" Susan asked from where she was now standing beside Barbara, Trixy standing in-between the groups so that she could see everyone.

"Yes, we've gone back in time, all right. One or two samples and I shall be able to make an estimate. With rock pieces and a few plants. But I do wish this wouldn't keep letting me down. However, we can go out now" the Doctor said looking at the TARDIS that had let him down, it had done the same thing when they landed in 1963 and they had to go out to know exactly when they were.

"Just a minute. You say we've gone back in time?" Ian asked.

"Yes, quite so" the Doctor agreed.

"So that when we go out of that door, we won't be in a junkyard in London in England in the year 1963?" Ian asked pointing to the door.

"Isn't that the point of a time machine?" Trixy asked moving to Barbara's side and looking up at her.

"That is quite correct. But your tone suggests ridicule" the Doctor said.

"But it is ridiculous. Time doesn't go round and round in circles. You can't get on and off whenever you like in the past or the future" Ian said.

"He picked me up in 1918" Trixy said and Ian turned to look at the girl and the Doctor smiled.

"Really? Where does time go, then?" the Doctor asked amused.

"It doesn't go anywhere. It just happens and then it's finished" Ian said.

Barbara frowned slightly. There were people who believed time to go in circles, several religions in fact. She actually found herself believing them as the Doctor turned to her.

"You're not as doubtful as your friend, I hope?" the old man asked.

"No" she said simply with a shake of her head.

"Barbara, you can't –" Ian said but the woman interrupted him.

"I can't help it. I just believe them, that's all" she said.

"If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?" the Doctor said.

"Yes" Ian answered.

"Go fetch your jacket, Trixy" the alien reminded the child as he opened the door and the girl excitedly grabbed the specified piece of clothing from where she had put it in one of the round things in the wall. "Now, see for yourself"

"It's not true. It can't be" Ian said in astonishment as he looked outside the door at the bare land outside.

"That's not on the screen" Susan said satisfied turning to her male teacher.

"Well I've no more time to argue with you. I must get some samples, Susan" the Doctor said moving to pick up his equipment from a table beside the door.

"Be careful, Grandfather" Susan said before pulling her own jacket on as the Doctor left the ship mumbling to himself.

"Come on" Trixy said standing just outside the door and Barbara stepped out to join her, there was no way she was going to let the girl run off on her own.

"Ian, come out and look" the woman said looking around up in the sky and at the wasteland around them.

Ian slowly moved around the console towards the door just to stumble just before the door and holding his head, wondering how hard he had really hit it or if it was actually real.

"Oh here, lean on me" Susan said noticing his struggle.

"No, thank you. I'm all right, thanks" Ian said and they left the ship, the doors closing behind them.

Ian stumbled slightly as he stepped out of the ship and out to a world that was not much like the one he knew. The sky was pale blue like a late autumn day and the wasteland stretched for miles to end in cliffs far away. As he looked around he also noticed a dense forest that looked like no one had ever tried to clear out. A bird cried above them. Ian leaned slightly on Susan to keep himself steady in his shock.

"Well?" Barbara asked as Ian and Susan reached her and Trixy and they started to walk, Trixy throwing a stone between her hands.

"But there must be some explanation" Ian said running his hand through his hair after turning on the spot to look around.

"That it was all true?" Trixy suggested innocently.

"This is Trixy by the way" Susan said realising her teachers didn't know. "She is Grandfather's ward"

"Well then, I'm Ian Chesterton and this is Barbara Wright" Ian said crunching down to speak to the girl.

"Yeah, I gathered that, it's nice to meet you" she said offering her hand to the man who took and shook it.

The Doctor looked at them as they all pulled their coats closer together and looked around, Trixy with the pure refreshing curiosity almost only children possess. As the Doctor walked off she spotted something in the sand and approached just to find an animal skull halfly buried in the sand.

"What do you think it could be?" Barbara who had followed her asked crunching down to check on it, lifting it up for Trixy to brush off as Susan sat down beside them. "Ian, look at this"

"I don't know" Ian said sitting down as well and picking up the skull. "It hasn't got any horns or antlers. Could be a horse" he put it down again and stood up. "Could be anything. Incredible. A police box in the midst of. Oh, it just doesn't make sense"

"It should have changed. Wonder why it hasn't happened this time" Susan said looking up at the TARIDS in concern.

"The ship, you mean?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, it's been an Ionic column and a sedan chair" Susan answered.

"Disguising itself wherever it goes" Barbara concluded.

"Yes, that's right. But it hasn't happened this time. I wonder why not" Susan said thoughtfully. "I wonder if this old head would help Grandfather. Where is he?"

Susan, Barbara and Trixy stood up as well. Susan and Trixy started to look for the Doctor while Barbara turned to speak with Ian.

"You're very quiet" she said to him.

"I was wrong, wasn't I" Ian said.

"Oh, look, I don't understand it any more than you do" Barbara tried to reassure the man. "The inside of the ship, suddenly finding ourselves here. Even some of the things Doctor Foreman says"

"That's not his name" Ian interrupted her. "Who is he? Doctor who? Perhaps if we knew his name we might have a clue to all this"

"Look, Ian, the point is, it's happened" Barbara said quite fed up with the man's attitude to it, even if she could understand him.

"Yes, it has. But it's impossible to accept. I know I'm here –" Ian said but Susan interrupted him.

"I can't see him anywhere" she said coming to stand before the adults.

"Me neither" Trixy agreed.

"He can't be far away" Barbara tried to reassure the girls.

"I had a feeling just now as if we were being watched" Susan said worried. "Grandfather"

Suddenly a cry Susan and Trixy recognised as the Doctor's voice was heard through the relative silence.

"Grandfather!" Susan cried desperately.

"Come on!" Ian said and they ran off towards the sound, Susan dropping the skull she had been holding as she took off.

"Look" Ian said coming to a stop beside what looked to be some of the Doctor's things.

"What is it?" Susan asked.

"Some of his things" Barbara said bending down to look at the things.

Trixy scrambled up to the top of a nearby rock and looked around for the Doctor. She needed to find him. She didn't know what they would do without him. Not when trapped in a time where there was no type of technology, no clue if there were even people and it very well could soon be winter from the feeling in the air.

"Grandfather, where are you?" Susan cried in panic, she couldn't lose him, he was all she had.

"Susan, don't panic" Ian said trying to hold the girl still and get her to calm down.

"I must find him" the young alien cried in her teacher's face.

"Susan" Ian said still trying to calm her down.

"I must see" Susan said breaking free.

"Well, be careful then" Ian said looking after her for a moment before turning back to Barbara as the woman spoke.

"Ian, look" she said holding up the Doctor's broken Geiger counter for him to see.

"It's not much good any more" Ian said briefly wondering if the device had shown any signs of radiation before it broke.

"Well, maybe he saw something and went off to investigate" Barbara said trying to sound positive.

"Not without that" Trixy said from her rock pointing at the Doctor's hat in front of the adults.

"Well, what do you think happened?" Barbara said looking more to Ian than Trixy, mostly not to worry the girl.

"I don't know. Perhaps he was excited and went off to investigate something as you suggest, but" Ian paused as he spoke and Trixy bit her lip as the adults stood up. "He may have been taken"

"I can't see him. I can't find him anywhere. There's not a sign of him" Susan returned sounding like she was about to cry.

"Calm down, Susan" Ian said.

"Susan, don't worry" Barbara said as the alien bent down to pick something up. "What's the matter?"

"It's his notes" Susan said standing up. "He'd never leave his notebook. It's too important to him. It's got the key codes of all the machines in the ship. It's got notes of everywhere we've been to. Something terrible has happened to him, I know it has. We must find him" Susan's explanation was desperate and ended in a cry as she tried to run but just ended up on her knees a meter of so away.

"Susan, Susan. We'll find him, I promise you. He can't be far away" Barbara said having dragged Susan back to her feet and tried to calm her down.

"What's on the other side of those rocks?" Ian asked looking up at Trixy from where he was picking up the Doctor's things.

"There is a forest not so far off with a gap that could be a path" the girl told him as Susan dried her eyes and nose.

"All right, we'll try there first" Ian said bundling up the Doctor's things as Susan took off and Trixy jumped down from her rock. "Strange" he continued holding a hand in the sand.

"What?" Barbara asked.

"This sand. It's cold. It's nearly freezing" he said.

"Could be close to winter" Trixy suggested quietly.

"Could be" Ian agreed, liking the logical explanation as they hurried after Susan towards the woods.

It was ominous under the trees as they moved along the path. Slowly darkness got thicker around them as they hurried along. Trixy seemed to have better night vision than both the adults and Susan and had as such taken the lead with Barbara close at her heals while Ian and Susan brought up the rear.

"What happened to Trixy? To make your grandfather her guardian" Ian asked Susan in a low voice.

"It was just before we arrived to 1963. We had landed in London in 1918 and were just on a walk around town when we found her. She sat with her back against the wall of an alley with a backpack in her arms not far from a burning house. We asked what she was doing out there all alone and where her parents were" Susan took a deep breath before continuing. "She pointed to the burning house with tears leaking out of her eyes. There was nothing we could do. Just about then the roof of the building collapsed, it was horrible" Susan was speaking in a low voice as to not alert Trixy of the subject, Barbara had drifted backwards to them as Trixy had stopped just up ahead. "There was no way we were going to leave her on the street and when we realised she wasn't human I convinced Grandfather to bring her along"

"You aren't human either, would anyone have noticed?" Ian asked. "Not that I think that orphanage in a post-World War I world would be all that good idea"

"She's eighteen" Susan explained. "That is enough not to leave her at an orphanage even if she didn't had a reptile's tongue rather than a human's not to talk about her scaled hands. The last five months have been hard on her"

Ian and Barbara looked at each other in surprise. The girl was eighteen? Did that mean she aged at third the rate humans did? They didn't understand the other parts fully but they clearly indicated that she couldn't live a normal life among humans as a child, maybe when she grew up but not now. Ian decided there and then that if they were stuck with this strange group of people he would try to bring up Trixy's spirits and remind the Doctor what it meant to be a parent, he must have known at some point if Susan was his granddaughter.

"What was that?" Susan asked and all of them started to listen closely as the young alien led them towards the sound.

Trixy's thin tongue dashed out for a moment like a snake's and Ian blinked, reptile tongue was it.

"I smell people" she whispered and the others nodded in understanding.

Ian was slightly revealed that it was people she smelled and nothing else, humans he knew how to fight.

"Make fire. Make fire come from your fingers as I saw you" a male voice said slightly desperate.

Ian peeked between the trees spotting the Doctor in a group of people dressed in animal skins. What had he been captured by? Cavemen? It would explain the year zero thing. Except that humanity had moved far past the caveman stage at that point.

"Cave men?" he whispered.

"Possible" Barbara agreed as the Doctor spoke.

"I have no matches. I cannot make fire. I cannot make fire!" he cried.

"Let the old man die. And we'll watch the great Kal as he kills his strong enemy" another male voice said mockingly.

"Make fire! Make fire! Or I kill you now!" the first of the men said grabbing the Doctor from behind and putting something to his neck, Ian couldn't tell what it was.

"Or we'll keep them and make them hunt for us. It's good to have someone to laugh at!" the second unknown man said and the entire tribe laughed as Ian suddenly noticed that Susan was moving among them towards the Doctor.

"Not good" he said barely holding back swearing due to Trixy being there.

"Grandfather!" Susan called jumping onto the back of the man holding the Doctor.

Ian, Barbara and Trixy moved in among the people as well trying to make their way towards the two aliens. Ian got in a few good hits bit both he and Barbara were soon stopped and Susan was pulled down from the back of man she had attacked. Trixy moved by people's legs but were soon lift up as she saw one of the men stand over Ian with a stone axe in his hand threatening to use it.

"If he dies, there will be no fire" the Doctor said in a desperate attempt to save the man, like him or not he didn't want him dead.

All the prehistoric humans stared at the alien for a moment but the axe didn't fall. Ian was pulled to his feet and held by another man while the man that Susan had attacked looked at Barbara in fascination. He moved towards her across the open space in the crowd left after the fight and reached out for her face, Barbara desperately leaning backwards, when an old woman spoke.

"Kill her. Kill her" she said and the man reached for his knife.

"Wait" the one who had been about to kill Ian said while grabbing the other's hands. "You cannot kill all our enemies. When Orb gives fire back to the sky, let him look down on them. Then that is when they die, and Orb will give us fire again" he said and they broke apart, the other one threatened him for a moment before looking around and putting away his stone knife. "Take them to the Cave of Skulls"

"No! No! Grandfather!" Susan cried as they were carried and in Ian and the Doctor's cases dragged towards the cave.

"All right" the Doctor said as they were moved into the cave.

The place were filled of bones and skulls and the primitive men bond their hands together. They soon realised it would be next to impossible to wriggle their hands free and not even Trixy seemed to have much luck with it. Ian who had gotten his hands bond last fell to his knees beside the others.

"Are you all right? Did they hurt you?" he asked looking down at Barbara who he was beside.

"No. Ian, I'm frightened" she said it mostly as a statement but it still rung true.

"Try and hang on" Ian said glancing at Trixy who smiled slightly to tell him that she were fine.

"But how are we going to get out of this?" Barbara asked.

"We should use our cunning" the Doctor said. "I hope you can get yourself free, Chesterton. I can't. The stench in here. The stench. I'm sorry. It's all my fault. I'm desperately sorry" he apologised.

"Don't blame yourself, Grandfather" Susan said before coughing.

"Look at that. Look at it" the Doctor said pointing to some of the skulls.

"They're all the same" Ian said looking at the holes on the top of the skulls. "They've been split open"

* * *

**There are going to be many short chapters in these early Doctor parts. Hope you enjoyed and chapter 3 is in the works. See you next time!**


	3. The Forest of Fear

**And it's finally here! It took a while but now school is over and I'm actually free when I get home from work, what a feeling. Anyway, here is chapter three and I hope to get chapter 4 up before too long, certainly before several months have passed at the very least. Well then, Allons-y!**

* * *

The Forest of Fear

"So, any ideas? How do we get lose?" Ian asked said pulling at his bonds.

"Can you bite through them, Trixy?" Susan asked hopefully but Trixy shook her head.

"One of my front teeth is loose, I wouldn't be able to" she said quietly.

"Congratulations" Ian said starting to search the floor for something to cut the bonds with.

"For what?" Trixy asked confused, both Susan and the Doctor had looked alarmed at her words.

"It's a sign of that you're growing up. Humans lose their baby teeth around six or seven years old" Barbara explained and Trixy's eyes widened.

"And certain kind of reptiles lose teeth several times during their life always growing new ones" Ian continued. "Would you have been able to gnaw through these anyway?" he asked curious to the answer.

"Maybe, but if I'm supposed to lose my teeth maybe the next set is even stronger" Trixy mused.

"They are for humans" Barbara said with a shrug.

"You two are fine with her not being fully human?" the Doctor asked. "And what are you looking for?"

"I have nothing against stories of aliens or fantasy creatures and if time travel is possible… why not everything else humans have ever dreamed up?" Ian shrugged. "And I'm looking for something with a rough edge to cut through these… I don't really want to call them ropes but you know"

"Something to cut through them then" Barbara said and they all started searching the floor for pieces of stone and bone that were rough and sharp enough to cut through the bonds with.

"Here" Trixy said handing Ian a piece of bone that had fallen off from a skull.

"Perfect" Ian said taking the piece from her and starting to work on the girl's bonds.

Trixy's hands was almost too small for the thick rope though and as she moved her hands slightly to give the man better access to the bonds they both noticed that it was quite loose on her.

"Try to get your hands out" Ian said and Trixy nodded.

As she started to wriggle her hands to get them loose Ian moved over to Barbara and started working on her bonds instead. Trixy kept moving her hands until suddenly realising something.

"Could you pull my gloves off?" she asked the Doctor who looked confused for a moment before realising that her bonds were tied outside the gloves.

"I've found another piece with a rough edge" Susan said as the Doctor and Trixy kept working on getting the glove off.

"Thank you" Ian said as Susan crawled up to him and handed him a piece of flint and he traced the bone in his hands for it an kept trying to cut Barbara's bonds.

Susan coughed and sat back as Ian tried to saw with the new piece of bone.

"It's no good, it keeps crumbling" Ian said, the bone breaking apart in his hands.

"Oh, it's hopeless, hopeless" the Doctor said, stopping with his task of Trixy's gloves as he spoke. "Even if we do get free, we shall never move that stone" he continued as Susan started to try and bite her way through the rope.

"There's air coming in here from somewhere" Ian argued looking around.

"Yes, there is. I can feel it on my face" Barbara agreed.

"It may only be a small opening. Don't count on it" Ian said.

"Well you obviously are" the Doctor said scornfully.

"Of course I am. Any hope is better than none" Ian said with a stern look at the Doctor. "Don't just lie there criticising us. Do something. Help us all to get out of here" he bent forward again trying once more to saw his way through Barbara's bonds. "Oh, this stone's no good" he said throwing it away.

"Well, don't give up, Ian. Please" Barbara said just as Trixy did that with trying to get her gloves off, it had turned out it wasn't much use.

"Oh, all right" Ian said moving for a piece of stone again.

"No, no, don't waste time. Try those bones, they may be. They're sharper, perhaps" the Doctor said.

"That's a good idea" Ian agreed reaching for a piece of bone instead.

"Grandfather, I knew you'd think of something" Susan said in slight glee.

"We must all take it in turns and try and cut his hands free" the Doctor said and both Susan and Trixy nodded.

"Surely we should get the girls free?" Ian protested and Trixy smiled slightly, seemed he was a man with hero ideals.

"No, no, we've got to free you first. You're the strongest, and you may have to defend us" the Doctor explained.

"Unless you want me to accidently kill someone" Trixy mumbled earning sharp looks from everyone else in the room.

"All right" Ian said deciding he didn't want to know what the girl meant right then, he had a feeling he would find out eventually.

They quickly got to work on Ian's bonds. Trixy was quickly told that she did not have to help and as such started to move the knot on the rope around her ankles instead. She wondered what would have happened if the Doctor hadn't found her, what could she possibly have done on the streets of London? On top of that if she had understood things right then there had been another war not too long after the one she could remember. Parts of London had been destroyed then. What could she possibly have done then? She would have looked like a teenager. No, however mad her life was going to be now she was happy the Doctor and Susan had found her, it sure beat the alternative.

"Susan, you have a go. My arms are tired" the Doctor said interrupting his sawing and handed the bone to Susan.

"All right" the younger alien said before getting to work while the Doctor fell down beside Barbara.

"And don't think of failing" he said and both the woman and Trixy looked at him confused.

"What?" Barbara asked.

"Well, try and remember, if you can, how you and the others found your way here. Concentrate on that please. Trixy, you as well" the Doctor said and Barbara nodded.

"Yes, yes, I'll try. You're trying to help me" Barbara said seeming surprised by the fact.

"He's not that bad" Trixy said, he had taken in an orphaned girl from the streets of London after all.

"Fear makes companions of all of us. That's right" the alien said in answer to Barbara's statement but he sent a look to Trixy that might have been grateful.

"I never thought once you were afraid" Barbara said.

"Fear is with all of us, and always will be. Just like that other sensation that lives with it" the Doctor told her and Trixy's brain was working overdrive to keep up with what they were talking about.

"What's that?" Barbara asked curiously.

"Your companion referred to it. Hope. Hope, that's right" the Doctor said.

Trixy thought of the words. Her parents had often said things like that. Like all the times they had reminded their butler that there was no true bravery without fear, which he always claimed he didn't have. She missed them. She had cried for the first few days after she came to the Doctor before instead trying to move on. Something that was anything but simple. She had however been out of tears for the time being and probably wouldn't cry about it again for a while, not until she came across something that she was missing with them. Barbara had taken over the bone and was sawing away while Susan once more tried to bite her bonds loose when she looked up over her shoulder. And screamed. Everyone's heads turned in the direction she was looking and they saw something moving in the darkness. Ian, who had done his military service just a few years ago, recognised it as the sound of someone moving among dry bushes. Trixy curled up her tongue behind her teeth preparing to strike if necessary.

"You will not make fire" the old woman who had wanted them killed said as she broke through the bushes in what had to be a hole in the cave.

The five time travellers stared at her as she moved closer with a flint knife in her hand.

"I will set you free if you will go away and not make fire. Fire will bring trouble and death to the tribe" the woman said shaking her head.

"There will be no fire" the Doctor agreed and Trixy's eyes darted to the main opening.

"Hurry, someone's trying to move the stone" she said and the old woman was swift to get to work.

"Hurry, hurry" she said while they were still removing the rope from their feet. "You must go across the tuft and into the trees" she said ushering them out of the smaller opening in the cave.

"Yes" Ian said and they started to run towards the trees.

Barbara soon took the lead with Trixy close by her side, Susan a few steps behind them, Ian coming soon behind her and the Doctor bringing up the rear, panting. They made their way through the thick vegetation, Trixy somehow moving as if she was right in her element even though she had never been in a forest like the one they were in. She easily leaped over obstacles, rounded trees with barely an inch to spare and barely cared when branches slapped her in the face.

"Stop. Just a minute, let me get my" the Doctor said stopping and panting while Ian grabbed him to keep him on his feet.

"We can't stop here" Ian said in a low voice.

"Just a moment" the Doctor said breathing hard.

Ian understood why the man needed to stop but if they wanted to get away they didn't have time for this.

"Look, we've got to go further on" he pressed.

"I know. I know that. But I must get. Breathe. I must breathe" the Doctor panted.

"Try. Try" Ian said, a decision coming to him unexpectedly. "I shall have to carry you" he said.

"There's no need for that. Don't be so childish. I'm not senile. Just let me get my breath for a moment" the alien argued.

Trixy frowned wondering what senile was. She hadn't really heard the word before.

"Oh, Grandfather, come on" Susan said coming up to the alien and starting to help him along their path.

"Yes. I'm not so young, you know" the older one said still breathing hard.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Barbara asked coming up to Ian.

"Yes, I think so" Ian said and Barbara looked around in concern.

"I can't remember. I simply can't remember" she said clearly worried as she started to sob.

"We're free, Barbara. Think about that. Free" Ian said trying to console her but also throwing a glance at Trixy who stood nearby listening to the birds screaming in the night.

Somehow the young girl seemed to be the calmest of them all. Maybe she just didn't have the sense to be scared but Ian doubted it. The girl had, hopefully, just gotten good at hiding her fear at some point. That wasn't much better but from what he had seen she was quite closed off. Probably to protect herself from a world that didn't accept her.

"Yes. Yes" Barbara said to his statement and he held her close as the animals kept screaming in the night and they moved on along the path.

The roar of a predator froze all three of them and Trixy shook lightly pulling closer to the adults as they hurried to catch up with Susan and the Doctor.

"I'm sure I remember this place. But we didn't come round it, we went across it" Susan panted releasing the Doctor for a moment as they stopped to think about their path.

Ian had an arm around Barbara's shoulders and had just placed a hand on Trixy's shoulder to make sure she was still there. It was after all dark among the trees as the night moved on and the moon didn't have that much of a possibility to light their way down there.

"Yes, there was a sort of trail" Barbara agreed hanging on to Ian in hope to keep at least one person close in the darkness.

"If that's true, we must be quite near the ship. How are you feeling?" Ian asked the Doctor who waved away his concern.

Ian and Trixy was the only ones not panting by now and for Trixy that could just be written off as that massive amount of energy children almost always seem to have. Ian was running on the other hand was running on reserves from his exploits in the previous decade and pure determination.

"I'm all right. Don't keep on looking upon me as the weakest link of the party" the Doctor said.

Everyone knew what he meant. In any other situation, that didn't require running, Trixy would have been counted as the weakest link. In the situation of prolonged physical activity however she was better equipped than the Doctor, unless you needed to lift something probably. Barbara suddenly pulled back with a gasp as they made to follow Susan and the Doctor, Ian was so quick to pull her into his arms that Susan for a second wondered if there was any truth to the rumours that had been going around the school. She and the Doctor was fast to get back to the humans' side and everyone looked in the direction where Barbara had seen something.

"What's the matter?" Ian asked in concern.

"I don't know. I saw something. Over there in the bushes" the woman said pointing.

"What nonsense" the Doctor said holding on tight to Susan.

"The bushes moved. I saw them. I saw them!" Barbara said angrily to the Doctor "Oh, we're never going to get out of this awful place! Never! Never! Never!" she continued trying to move away from the others but Ian followed and wrapped her right back up in his arms.

"Barbara" he said trying to calm her down.

"What do you think it could have been, Grandfather?" Susan asked the older alien worriedly.

"Oh, sheer nonsense, child. Imagination" the Doctor said as Barbara kept sobbing in Ian's arms a few steps away.

"We'll die in this place" she managed to get out and Ian was fast to try and reassure her.

"Barbara, no we won't. We're going to get back to the ship and then we'll be safe" Ian said holding her close.

He could barely believe that he was saying those words however as just a few hours ago he had been so set against the whole thing. At least the space ship was better than this place.

"Oh, Ian, what's happening to us?" Barbara asked looking up at him.

The man knew he didn't have a good answer, not to what she really wanted to know. He had started to accept everything about aliens and time travel now but he had also realised that he needed to be strong for the woman in his arms and probably for all of them.

"Look, Barbara, we got out of the cave, didn't we?" he said placing his hands on her cheeks trying to calm her down.

"I'm so cold" Susan said shuddering slightly into the Doctor's chest.

"I'm hot with all this exertion" the Doctor said badding his face with a napkin.

"We'll rest for a couple of minutes" Ian said coming back to the two aliens and child with Barbara, placing a hand on Trixy's shoulder to check on her as he came closer.

"Oh, good. Is there any chance of them following us?" Susan asked panting while the Doctor tried to fan himself with his napkin.

"I expect so" he answered and Susan hurried around Ian and up to Barbara who had sat down for a moment.

"Yes, that's why I don't want to stop here too long" Ian said watching the trees ahead of them but releasing Trixy's shoulder as he spoke expecting the girl to join the other females.

"Do you think I want to?" the Doctor said hotly.

"No" Ian agreed. "We'll change the order. You and Susan go in front, Trixy after you while Barbara and I'll bring up the rear. Susan seems to remember the way better than any of us" he added, both of them knowing he wanted Trixy in the middle to keep her safe.

"You seem to have elected yourself leader of this little party" the Doctor said.

"There isn't time to vote on it" Ian argued.

"Just so long as you understand I won't follow your orders blindly" the Doctor told him sounding slightly angry.

"If there were only two of us, you could find your own way back to the ship" Ian countered.

He hadn't expected any other response from the Doctor than that he wouldn't follow blindly but he was tired, hungry, slightly afraid and frustrated.

"Aren't you a tiresome young man!" the Doctor said and Ian had a strange thought that the two of them might be quite alike somewhere deep inside.

"And you're a stubborn old man" he said sounding quite angry. "But you will lead, the girls in between, and I'll bring up the rear. Because that's the safest way. Barbara was probably right. I thought we heard something when we stopped back there" he continued looking around in concern.

"Oh, sheer imagination" the Doctor said trying to sound confident.

"Why are you so confident about it?" Ian asked.

"I won't allow myself to be frightened out of my wits by mere shadows, that's all" the Doctor said, also sounding frustrated before he moved off to sit by the girls.

"All right" Ian said with one last look at the forest before he also joined the girls on the log where they sat, Trixy in between Barbara and Susan, putting his arms around Barbara as he sat down.

"Are you okay?" Barbara finally collected herself enough to ask Trixy who nodded, hugging herself closely.

Ian and Barbara looked at each other clearly thinking otherwise. This was a girl who appeared to be six years old, probably was slightly more mature than her size suggested but still, she had lost her parents just a few months ago and here she was running from cavemen barely reacting to how strange it was. They hoped she wasn't emotionally stunted by everything. Maybe this was actually good for her, something else than school.

"So, what did you think about the '60s" Ian asked looking between the Doctor and Trixy. "I know Susan liked it but what about you two?"

"Primitive" was the Doctor's answer.

"Okay, but I didn't fit in at school so it wasn't all that fun" Trixy mumbled. "Beats the alternative"

None of the adults wanted to look at her after that, not even the Doctor. She should not have been aware of the hardships of living on the streets at her age, most parents would protect you from that. Then, to her the last four years had been war.

"I think we'd better get going. Doctor, will you lead?" Ian said standing up followed by the others.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes" the Doctor said standing up with Susan at his heels, Trixy following behind them.

"Come on, Barbara" Ian said helping the woman stand up.

Barbara had almost not started to move at all when she stumbled on the uneven ground landing face to face with a dead boar. She screamed. It was a natural reaction in the limited light and what she saw most were the white tusks.

"Barbara, Barbara" Ian said falling to his knees beside her.

"A dead animal" Susan said carefully running her fingers over it.

"It must have just been killed. By a larger animal, too" the Doctor said as Barbara kept crying now in Ian's arms, all her fear, despair and anger over the situation getting out making it hard to stop.

"Sir" Trixy whispered tapping Ian's shoulder and then pointing into the forest as he turned to look at her.

"Shush. Shush" he shushed Barbara who was finally calming down. "That must be them. They followed us" he said upon hearing what Trixy had already heard. "Quick, quick. Over there" he said pointing out a hiding place among the trees close by and they all followed his idea, Barbara still gasping for breath.

The moon now stood high enough for its light to reach the glade as two of the people from the cave entered. The five time travellers was standing close together out of sight in the bushes as they observed the two primitive people approaching the boar.

"Keep down, and not a sound" Ian said quietly, his hands firmly on Barbara's upper arms just underneath her shoulders to show that he was there.

The sounds of wild animals around them seemed to cause their followers to stop and wait for a moment.

"Wait. There is danger. I will go" the man said when the woman made to move forward and he moved instead.

The man sneaked among the vegetation when suddenly a huge form came out from among the trees and attacked the man. The woman started to scream. The time travellers stood up from their crouched state, staring at the scene in fear.

"What is that?" Trixy said shivering and Barbara, who was far from calm herself, grabbed hard on the girl's shoulders much like Ian held hers to keep her calm, no one answered the question however.

From their position it was near to impossible to see what was going on and they were all too scared to fully comprehend the situation. The animal eventually let out a wail and they heard it's hurried escape through the trees, the cavewoman still screaming.

"Quick, now's our chance. Let's get away. Run!" Ian said trying to get Barbara to move towards the ship but it seemed his only help in that department was the Doctor.

"Look at them. We can't just leave them! I don't care what they've done" Barbara argued gripping Ian's labels.

"Barbara. Barbara, come on" Ian tried to reason with her.

"I think he's dead. There isn't any danger" Barbara said having released Trixy and were now turned completely to Ian while the girl tried to see what was going on with the ancient people.

"Barbara, for heaven's sake" Ian started to say while Barbara was still talking.

"No" the woman said before taking off towards the hurt man, Ian close behind trying to stop her.

"I'm going too" Susan said trying to follow the adults but the Doctor pulled her back.

Trixy found herself forgotten by the aliens as they basically repeated the argument the humans had just had and as such she decided to hurry after Ian instead.

"No, keep away" the cavewoman said just as Ian stopped by her side, flint knife in hand.

"Let me look at him" Ian said trying to calm the hysterical woman down, Barbara, Susan and Trixy beside him while the Doctor made his way through the bushes towards them.

"No" the woman said, she clearly didn't want them anywhere near the man.

"I am your friend. You understand? Friend. I want to help him" Ian said crouching down beside the woman.

"Friend?" she asked confused, clearly the word wasn't in her vocabulary.

"I want water" Ian said praying to whatever god there was that that word at least was something she knew, otherwise he would be worried about this tribe's survival.

"Water" she said, clearly knowing what it was but not understanding what he meant.

"Go and fetch some water for his wounds" Ian said pointing to the blood on the man's torso.

Susan suddenly realised that Trixy was there and tried to turn her around and away from the scene as Barbara and the cavewoman left to get water. Trixy was not having that however and stayed firmly in place not seeming at all bothered by the blood, something that disturbed both Ian and Susan but neither mentioned it. Susan looked back at her grandfather who stood back from the downed man and noticed him giving Trixy a concerned look as well.

"Is he all right?" Susan asked Ian as Trixy sat down on her knees beside him trying to get a better look of the hurt man's chest.

"I think so" Ian answered briefly looking up at Susan and the Doctor who had come up behind her. "He must have buried his axe head in the animal" he said taking the handle of the axe from the man's hand just as Barbara and the cavewoman returned. "Thank you" Ian said accepting his wet handkerchief of Barbara and started to wring the water out on the man's wounds to clean them.

"Water comes out of the skin!" the cavewoman said in amazement while her friend seemed to be in pain on the ground.

"Yes" Ian said bemused by her amazement. "I think most of this is the animal's blood" he added as he started to see the actual skin under all the blood.

"Good" Susan said in relief.

"There's a scar on the side of his head" Barbara said in concern as she tried to clean it.

"Well, we've lost our chance of getting away. Your flat must be littered with stray cats and dogs" Ian said to Barbara with laughter in his voice as he tried to make light of the situation.

"These are human beings, Ian" Barbara chided him.

"Yes, I know" the man agreed just as the caveman on the ground started to cry out even more.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" the Doctor asked still standing quite a way away from the man on the ground as the others grouped around him while he whined in pain.

"Have you got any antiseptic in the ship?" Ian asked of Susan ignoring the Doctor.

"Yes, lots" Susan said also ignoring her Grandfather.

"One minute ago we were trying desperately to get away from these savages" the Doctor said, he wasn't sure he understood why the humans acted the way they did, or why his granddaughter was right there beside them.

"All right, now we're helping them. You're a doctor, do something" Ian said desperately trying to help the man on the ground.

"I'm not a doctor of medicine" the old alien clarified what Ian had already suspected.

Grandfather, we can make friends with them" Susan told him but he just rounded on her instead.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, child" he said.

"Why? You treat everybody and everything as something less important than yourself" Barbara said angrily at the Doctor.

"You're trying to say that everything you do is reasonable, and everything I do is inhuman. Well, I'm afraid your judgement's at fault, Miss Wright, not mine. Haven't you realised if these two people can follow us, any of these people can follow us? The whole tribe might descend upon us at any moment" the alien argued with her.

"The tribe is asleep" the cavewoman put in.

"And what about the old woman who cut our bonds? You understand?" the Doctor said giving the prehistoric woman a hard look and the woman looked to Ian instead.

"He's right" Ian admitted. "We're too exposed here. We'll make a stretcher and carry him" Ian said getting to his feet and starting to unbutton his coat.

"You're not going to take him back to the ship?" the Doctor said but he was once more ignored.

"Take your coat off, Barbara. Susan, Trixy, try and find me two poles. Long ones, fairly straight" Ian said and his words where quickly followed while the Doctor didn't seem too happy about it all.

"The old woman won't give us away. She helped" Barbara said.

"Do you think so? These people have logic and reason, have they? Can't you see their minds change as rapidly as night and day? She's probably telling the whole tribe at this very moment" the Doctor argued.

"He has a point, you are the Historian, when did the concept of logic come about?" Ian said glancing at Barbara.

"It was studied in several ancient civilisations" Barbara argued.

"Yeah, but unless it's fear these people might not have it, if even then" Trixy said as she returned balancing a long pole in her hands. "There can't be much human civilisation on the planet right now. I mean even affection seems forging to them"

Ian shook his head and took the pole of the girl silently agreeing with the girl. He sat down on the ground again and he and Barbara started on the stretcher. Susan soon showed up with another pole and they kept working, the cavewoman never leaving her friend's side.

"It's not going to work like this. What can we do?" Ian said as he tried to fasten the coats on the poles.

Behind him Susan was taking of her jacket and rolling it up to put under the man's head to make it more comfortable for him. As she approached however the woman pushed her back with a shout.

"No! He's mine" she said pulling the man towards her trying to keep Susan away.

"I was only trying to help" Susan said in dismay not understanding the woman's reasoning.

"She doesn't understand, Susan. She's jealous of you" Ian said.

"I don't understand what you are doing. You are like a mother with a child. Why do you not kill?" the cavewoman asked turning to where Ian was holding Susan close to calm her Barbara beside him and Trixy standing behind them.

"How can we explain to her? She doesn't understand kindness, friendship" Ian asked Barbara.

"I thought human were pack animals, doesn't helping each other come natural?" Trixy asked confused.

"Good point, but I think this is quite the damaged tribe" Barbara said before turning to the other woman. "We will make him well again. We will teach you how to make fire. In return, you show us the way back to our cave" she said to her in her best teacher voice.

"Listen to them. They do not kill" the man on the ground said and the woman leaned forward over him.

"Come on. Let's get on with this stretcher. Let's try the sleeves inside. That's it" Ian said as they got back to work with the stretcher, Trixy staying closest to the prehistoric people as she would be the least threatening.

"Water" the caveman said weakly.

"Water" his woman agreed before standing up to go and fetch some water, only stopping for a moment to slook at the Doctor who stood off to the side not willing to help.

"How about giving us a hand, Doctor?" Ian said but the alien just turned away from them.

"He's always like this if he doesn't get his own way" Susan explained.

"Bad day for him" Trixy muttered, there wasn't much that had gone the Doctor's way that day.

"The old woman won't give us away" Barbara said feeling quite sure of her words herself. "And now that we've got these two on our side, we should get back to the ship"

"Yes" Susan agreed.

The Doctor had meanwhile moved over to them and now stood beside the hurt man with a stone in his hand. He was behind Susan and Barbara so the females hadn't noticed but Ian moved quickly and grabbed the Doctor's wrist before he could do anything.

"Get your hand off me" the alien said.

"What are you doing?" Ian said pulling the hand with the stone upwards, he really didn't trust the Doctor.

"Well, I, I, I was going to get him to draw our way back to the TARDIS" the Doctor said choosing his words carefully.

"We've been too long as it is. Is the stretcher ready?" Ian said while Trixy pried the stone from the Doctor's hand.

"Yes" Barbara answered Ian's question before standing up straight.

"Right, you take one end of it" Ian said to the Doctor.

"You don't expect me to carry him, do you?" the alien said clearly hoping that was the case.

"Do you want the women to do the job for you?" Ian asked hoping to apply to the alien's male pride.

"Oh, very well" the Doctor agreed.

While they talked the cavewoman returned with water in her hands which they managed to get into the man before they started to try and get him onto the stretcher.

"Right, now move him over very carefully" Ian said and they did so while the man groaned. "Now, back again, gently" he said when the stretcher was in place and they carefully rolled him back to more groaning.

"Good. Right, now, Susan, you and Trixy get in front with her" Ian said while he and the Doctor lifted the stretcher.

"What's your name?" Trixy asked the woman who looked down at her confused.

"What are you called?" Susan tried to clarify.

"Hur" the woman answered understanding what they meant.

"And he?" Trixy asked pointing to the man behind them.

"Za" she answered as they moved through the trees to get to the ship.

"Hold the branches back, Susan" said a while later.

"The Tardis! There's the Tardis!" Susan cried out as she saw the ship stand alone in the sand under the dark sky.

Suddenly, shapes of humans stood up all around them, seemingly appearing from out of the ground. The tribe had found them.

"Back! Back! Go back" Ian said and they turned around coming face to face with more of the tribe.

They were surrounded.

* * *

**Done, many cliffhangers right now but that's how it works. Might rework these into longer chapters later but first I need to get some of it behind me. So, see you next time!**


	4. The Firemaker

**And finally the last part of the first "serial" or "episode" is up. I have recently got a beta, a good friend of mine called obbbid on here! Hope you like the chapter. Allons-y!**

* * *

The Firemaker

Trixy was the only one of the time travellers not helping to carry the stretcher but was instead carried over the shoulder of one of the cavemen. It annoyed her greatly to be carried around like a sack of potatoes like she had seen the workers do in the harbour with her mom not even a year ago. It annoyed her but she was still more afraid than anything. How were they ever going to get out of this now? She heard the other's put down their burden and be dragged off with the man who was carrying her following.

"Za and the woman went with them. I, Kal, stop them" the man who seemed to have led the second charge to find them said.

"They saved Za from death near the stream" Hur defended them and the man carrying Trixy put her down beside Ian but he still held on tight to her.

"They set them free from the Cave of Skulls and went with them" the man, Kal they supposed now that they really had a chance to listen, argued with her.

"The old woman cut them free" Hur said angrily.

"Za is so weak a woman speaks for him" Kal said causing Ian to roll his eyes, who wouldn't be weak under the circumstances?

"It was the old woman. She showed them a new way out of the Cave of Skulls" Hur got up from her crunching position by Za's side and spoke straight in Kal's face.

"The old woman does not speak. She does not say she did this or did that. The old woman is dead. Za killed the old woman" Kal said.

"No!" Hur said and her reaction to the news told the time travellers that she hadn't known.

"Za killed the old woman with his knife" Kal spat at Hur who backed away slightly.

"No" she said once more, seemingly sure of herself, to the group from the future at least.

Kal moved towards Za with Hur hurrying to his side as well as the man picked up Za's knife. Za's clean knife. There was not a drip of blood on the piece of flint.

"Here. Here is the knife he killed her with" he said happening to hold the stone just in front of the Doctor who studied it easily and from what he had seen come to a conclusion. One that just might get them out of this.

"This knife has no blood on it. I said, this knife has no blood on it" he said pointing to the flint while looking at Kal and trying to keep his language simple enough for them to understand.

Kal studied the knife as well, probably ending up noticing the same thing. Small grins crept on both Ian and Barbara's faces, simple logic and facts were always the hardest to argue with.

"It is a bad knife. It does not show the things it does" Kal argued earning him sceptical looks from all time travellers except the Doctor, who was very into playing his roll, as he dropped the knife.

"It is a finer knife than yours" the Doctor said holding it up to the man.

"I, Kal, say it is a bad knife" the caveman spat at the alien.

"This knife can cut and stab. I have never seen a better knife" Trixy grinned at the Doctor's words, while Ian smiled beside her at the trickery the old man was doing.

"I will show you one" Kal said pulling out his own knife which had plenty of blood on it, easily noted by the Doctor.

"This knife shows what it has done" the alien said taking the knife from Kal. "There is blood on it" he continued showing it to the rest of the tribe before bending down before Za who was now sitting up. "Who killed the old woman?"

"I did not kill her" the man answered and the Doctor stood back up and turned to Kal.

"You killed the old woman" he said moving back towards the man he was accusing.

"Yes!" Kal confessed to the horror of the tribe. "She set them free. She set them free. She did this. I, Kal, killed her"

The mutterings among the small crowd grew louder as he spoke. Humans never did, generally, like people who killed like that if it wasn't war and even then killing in cold blood was often looked down at. Ian had learnt that in the previous decade when he did his military service, or rather the full truth in it. It was something his mother had told him multiply times when he was growing up and was angry, mainly at the Germans at that point.

"Is this your strong leader?" the Doctor asked the tribe starting to move around the edge of the crowd to gather support against Kal, or at least get it somewhat organised. "One who kills your old women? He is a bad leader. He will kill you all. Yes, all" he said before whispering the last words of his speech to Ian whom he had reached. "Follow my example"

He bent down and picked up some stones from the ground and Ian looked on with a serious look on his face as the alien came back up.

"Drive him out" the Doctor said to the man as a mean of explanation and Ian was quick to catch on as the Doctor threw a stone at Kal. "Out"

"Yes, drive him out" Ian said picking up his own stone to throw at Kal. "He killed the old woman"

Hur was the first to follow their example but as Kal tried to attack he was in turn attacked by the whole tribe. They tightened their ranks against him, pelted him with stones and hit him with sticks. Kal was slowly forced out of the cave and Za was on the forefront of it. As the whole thing died down Ian started to move through the crowd towards Za, hoping to make him a better leader than Za had been.

"Remember, Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe" he said and Za seemed to think for a moment before turning to the crowd.

"Kal is no longer one of this tribe. We will watch for him. We will all fight Kal if he comes back. We will watch for him. Take them to the Cave of Skulls" Za said, the last sentence coming quite unexpectedly as they had been released for the past few minutes.

"Take us back to the desert and we will make fire for you" Ian said as he was dragged past Za who seemed to hesitate for just a second before he spoke.

"The great stone will close one place, and you will stand by another I will show you. Take them" he instructed one of his tribe members.

"Don't struggle" the Doctor said as Ian started to do just that.

They were dragged back into the cave but was not bound this time. Ian led Barbara and the Doctor led Susan while Trixy kept in-between the two pairs. Upon coming close to the skulls however Susan found it too much and turned away with Barbara grabbing a hold of her.

"This place is evil" the Doctor said moving away from the skulls as well.

Ian looked around what must have been some kind of burial site and moved to the opening they had escaped through earlier looking out in the night. He turned to look at the others. Barbara was holding Susan close and Trixy had curled up close to them looking like she was very close to falling asleep. The Doctor was just making his way down beside his granddaughter. There had to be a way to get them all out of this. The Doctor's little act earlier had rid them of one enemy, or at least made him an enemy to everyone else as well, but they still had to get away from the rest of the tribe. Maybe if they gave them what they wanted…

"I'm hungry" Trixy said and Ian grimaced at that realising that so was he.

"I'm sorry, we don't have anything to eat" Barbara sighed.

"No, but maybe we could fix another problem" Ian said. "And who is to say that they won't give us food if we give them what they want"

"What?" Trixy asked confused sitting up rubbing her eyes. "Are we going to make fire?"

"Exactly, would solve the problem that I think we are all slightly freezing as well, or at least most of us" Ian said frowning at the Doctor who had not made a single complaint in that area.

"Our species can take more extreme temperatures than humans" Susan gave as a quick explanation.

"What do you need, Ian?" Barbara asked looking around the cave, they did not have much to work with.

"Dry leaves and grass, a few sticks, one that need to be bendable, a flat stone about the size of my palm and does anyone happen to have any twine in their pockets?" Ian asked and Trixy was quick to provide the last piece of equipment.

"Why aren't we just using the flint?" she asked as she handed the string to Ian.

"It is a good idea but we don't have any metal to make sparks against" the man said before looking around. "Or do we?"

His question was met with shaken heads all around, as he had sort of expected. Everyone soon got to work building the fire. Trixy, turning out to be uncomfortably sneaky, managed to gather a small pile of twigs from the entrance where the guard stood and Barbara soon followed to get quite a pile of dry grass and leaves. Meanwhile Ian built a simple fire pit and made sure everything was ready to start spinning. He glanced up at his travelling companions now and then, wondering what they were thinking. Trixy kept yawning time after time and Barbara soon told her to go and lie down by Ian's side, he had to wonder if she was an only child or if she had younger siblings. She treated Trixy as if she had. He also wondered what Trixy actually knew about what he was doing or if she had just heard about lightning a fire with flint. She was from a time where it was probably done that way for a while during the war and a time when scouting was still new and it was possible that she had heard about it. Personally he, and every other boy in his dorm, had devoured _Scouting for Boys_ in a few days while in school during the war.

"I think this is what you want, Mister Chesterton" Susan said hurrying over with a flat rock that Ian could fit in his hand and at the same time shaking him out of his thoughts.

"Thank you" he said putting the bow he had made with a stick and the twine around a straight stick and put the rock on the top for something better to hold onto and give the stick the ability to spin.

"Here are some leaves, and some dead grass" Barbara said putting the last of her bundle down beside the two flat stones Ian was using for friction.

"Yes, well spread them around the hole" Ian said starting to spin the straight stick with his miniature bow. "Don't put them inside. I hope this is going to work. Now, spread them around a bit more. Yes, that's it"

"Flint is easier" Trixy mumbled sitting up again, she had dosed off for a few minutes and was now rubbing her eyes.

"Have you tried?" Barbara asked and the girl nodded but didn't seem willing to elaborate.

"I can smell something" Susan said not wanting anyone to press Trixy for more but also because it was true.

"Yes, so can I" Barbara agreed.

"It's burning! It's burning!" Susan said happily pointing at it as the Doctor looked on over her shoulder.

"You've never lit a fire without matches before, have you?" Trixy asked looking between the two older females and the alien male.

"It's a long way off yet" Ian agreed panting.

"What is this?" Za asked coming up behind them.

"We are making fire" the Doctor said slowly as he pointed to the fire pit in hope that the man would understand.

Za turned his head and stared at the Doctor for just a moment before moving forward and looking to Ian instead.

"You are called Friend?" he asked and they all realised the misunderstanding that had been.

"Yes" Ian said though as he suspected that correcting him would be useless.

"Don't stop" the Doctor quietly reminded him and Ian hurried back to work.

"Hur said you were called Friend. I am called Za. You are the leader of your tribe?" Za said and Ian realised that this tribe might have a really twisted sense of leadership, from his perspective.

"No. He is our leader" Ian said nodding towards the Doctor causing Susan to smile and the Doctor put his hand under his shirt in a Napoleon fashion.

"Are you going to set us free?" Susan asked turning to face Za.

"The tribe say you are from Orb and when you are returned to him on the stone of death, we will have fire again" Za said ignoring the question.

"But that's not true" Barbara argued.

"I think you are from the other side of the mountains" Za said having crouched down beside them. "If you show me how to make fire, I will take you back to the foot of the mountains. If you do not show me, I cannot stop you dying on the old stone"

"Put some more leaves and grass round it. I think it's beginning to work" Ian said and Barbara complied at once.

"Do you understand? We are making fire for you" the Doctor said pointing first at the supposed fire and then at Za.

"I am watching" Za said.

"The whole tribe should be watching. Everyone should know how to make fire" Ian said and the others agreed, it was this times people's key to surviving.

"Everyone cannot be leader" Za snapped.

"No, that's perfectly true. But in our tribe, the firemaker is the least important man" Ian said in explanation, panting as he spoke.

"Ha! I do not believe this" Za scoffed.

"He is the least important because we can all make fire" the Doctor said and the caveman frowned and looked at the females, the child most of all.

"I hope he doesn't make Grandfather prove that" Susan whispered to Barbara, Ian and Trixy.

"If he does, I'll do it" Trixy suggested. "I know how and he would probably think that if a child can…"

"Are you sure you can do it?" Barbara asked and the girl nodded.

"There wasn't that much matches in the last few years at home, so we used other ways" she said cryptically and with a pained look on her face.

The others decided not to ask. It was clear that it was a painful subject and that it had to do with loss. Ian and Barbara glanced at each other, all too aware of the feeling of losing someone. That and the fear of war had been all too present in their childhoods as well.

"Look, I think it's beginning to work. Susan, Barbara, blow gently" Ian said and when they did as asked flames sprung up from the dry grass. "That's it!"

Ian and Barbara at once started to move more grass to the flames feeding the fire to grow. Susan Moved out of the way to let Za come forward. The man bent over staring at the flames in wonder.

"Fire. Fire" he said, eyes wide as saucers.

Having covered the fire with sticks instead of grass Ian blew gently on it to make it more stable. Suddenly a sound came from the side entrance to the cave and they turned to see Kal stand there with his axe held ready. Za was on his feet at once standing ready to defend them. He dodged Kals axe as he swung towards him and moved so that the fire was in-between them. Kal bent down and reached for the flames in fascination before pulling back his hand from the heat. He stared at it for a moment before moving around the fire. The Doctor was holding Susan close and so was Ian with Barbara who had also pulled Trixy to her and were keeping her away from Kal. They watched in fear and in Ian's case calculating the movements of both cavemen. Kal swung again and everyone else dodged or ducked as the fighters had gotten dangerously close to the travellers. As they kept running around the travellers were fast to move out of the way, pulling back from the fire and pressing themselves to a wall. Za swung at Kal with a club like branch he had picked up but soon had to dodge again as Kal swung wildly with his axe. Eventually both men grabbed the other's attacking wrist in their free hands and it turned to a bit of a brawl when Za managed to push Kal to the ground and sat on him. Kal soon managed to throw him off however and Za was in turn attacked from above. Soon after they were both on their feet and stared at each other for a moment before Kal made a move. He swung at Za who moved out of the way making him hit the sandy ground where the axe buried itself and Za took the opportunity to crush the handle with his club. He then proceeded to try and hit Kal and in the end crushed a number of skulls on a sort of shelf on the wall. As it all turned into a brawl Barbara turned Trixy around and tried to make sure the girl wasn't scared even more at her young age. Eventually Za managed to almost break Kal's neck and the man fell panting to the floor. Za soon found a big rock and threw it with a sickening crush on Kal's head killing him instantly. He then proceeded to drag the body away to a corner and stuffed it away partly out of sight from the fire. Ian moved towards the fire again and picked up a long stick, lighting it in the fire while the tribe screamed outside the stone blocking the entrance.

"Take this, and show it to your tribe" Ian said handing the torch to Za.

"You, stay here" Za said after accepting the fire.

"We will come with you" Ian said.

"No, you'll stay here" Za barked back at him but Ian tried to insist.

"I will come with you" he said just to end up almost getting the torch thrown in his face.

"Give him a chance" the Doctor told Ian while keeping him back from Za in hope of avoiding another fight. "Give him a chance. Let him show the tribe fire, establish himself as leader, then he'll let us go"

"But we ought to go with him now" Ian argued.

"Why?" Trixy asked and Ian turned to her in surprise. "What do we have to win in joining him now? Possibly just another fight and that won't get us out"

"She's right" the Doctor said sitting down by the fire.

"I know" Ian sighed but it didn't feel any better because of that.

They all sat down by the fire to wait. Trixy's eyes dropped shut several times just for her to shake herself awake again a second later. Several stomachs rumbled as well as the fire burned with it's mesmerising flames between them.

"It didn't work. They're going to keep us here" Ian said while ripping his tie off and starting to fold it just to have something to do with his hands.

Hur suddenly came into the cave and placed some kind of food between Ian and Barbara.

"Why are you keeping us here?" Ian asked turning to the woman who was kneeling beside him.

"Za has gone into the forest to find meat" she said standing up and walking around them to Kal's body. "There will be more food later"

"But why can't we go outside?" Barbara asked.

"Please let us go. It's terrible in here" Susan said though they all, Trixy included, had a hard time believing that would happen now.

"Za is leader" Hur said turning her head to look at them.

"But we helped you. We gave you fire" Susan said furiously and begging at the same time.

Hur stood up and backed away from Kal's corpse so she stood beside the fire once more.

"Yes. We have fire now" she said before leaving.

"Yes. And I was the fool who gave it to you. Why didn't I wait?" Ian said and Barbara leaned towards him to talk.

"Well at least we're alive. We wouldn't be if we hadn't given them fire" she reasoned.

"Was that food?" Trixy asked pointing to the space between the two teachers.

"Um, yeah, some kind of roots or fruits" Ian said studying the items in question.

"Can we eat? I'm hungry and it's easier to get out if we aren't that, right?" Trixy said before yawning.

"Two good points" Ian said picking up the food and started to divide it between them.

"Two?" Trixy asked as she accepted her share.

"Yeah, food then sleep for a while" Ian said. "We need to have eaten and rested before we try to force out way out of here if we try that at all"

It was a few hours later and Barbara, who had had the last watch was waking up everyone to inform them of what had been delivered a moment earlier. Susan and the Doctor had both been easy to wake and had also been quick to try and help her with the meat they had gotten from the tribe while Trixy had woken from the smell. They had decided to let Ian sleep until the food was done as he had, on his own request, taken the longest watch pass and would be the one to mainly having to fight if they chose that approach to get away. In the end they woke the man up just as the meat started to get done and Susan handed him a stick with a slice on it.

"And the Doctor found a stone with a hole in it, and they filled it with water" Barbara said revealing what the Doctor had spent his watch doing.

"All the comforts of home" Ian said accepting the stick and putting it close to the fire.

Behind them Za entered the cave. Everyone glanced up at him but only Ian kept his eyes on him for more than a moment.

"The animal was hard to kill. The meat on it is good" Even Ian turned away from Za as he spoke, completely ignored. "They have brought you fruit and water has been put into a stone" he grabbed Ian's shoulder and shoved him back before stepping over him to check on the stone before him. "Is this the stone? Has anyone hurt you?"

"When are you going to let us go, hmm?" the Doctor asked not caring at all for the question.

"You will stay here. I have the meat and I have the stick, and a piece of skin. I can make fire now. Your tribe and my tribe will join together" Za said.

"We don't want to stay here" Ian said with a frown from where he had sat up behind Barbara.

"Why? There is no better place the other side of the mountains. Do not try to leave here" he stood up and started to walk out.

"Quench the fire. Take the fire away from them. Scaring them, somehow" the Doctor mused thinking hard on the idea.

"What about showing them I'm not human?" Trixy said before ripping a piece of meat of her stick with her teeth.

"Too risky, they would want to kill you and we can't have that" Ian said and Trixy looked down but they all briefly saw something in her eyes that they didn't recognised.

Susan got another idea and stood up as they spoke with a burning branch in her hands. She walked around Ian and Barbara to some skulls and placed one on the burning end of the branch.

"Hey, Grandfather, look! It's almost alive" she said and the others all looked up at her creation just for Trixy to turn away shuddering the moment she saw it.

"Not alive, Susan. Almost dead" Ian said gleefully as he watched the flames lick the skull, escaping every hole in it. "We're going to make five torches. We'll find the sticks. And we'll use the fat from the meat. And then –"

"And then?" Susan asked caught in Ian's excitement so she interrupted him.

"And then, to all intents and purposes, we're going to die" Ian said and Trixy shivered even more.

"Trixy are you okay?" Barbara asked in concern moving to the girl's side.

"I will be, it just" the girl bit her lip.

Barbara suddenly remembered how her parents had probably died and as such promptly turned the girl away from the others' work and told her to finish her food instead. Everyone ate as they tried to arrange their escape, it would not do to try and run to the TARDIS on empty stomachs. It wasn't long till the torches were done and put in place. The rest of the plan consisted of them pressing against a wall out of sight and waiting for the tribe to enter.

"When I give the sign" Ian whispered as steps were heard entering the cave.

The one entering was Hur. She walked in to give them more food and then screamed when she saw the burning skulls, four adult once and one of a child. More of the tribe entered and had much the same reaction. Susan tried to say something but the adults were quick to quiet her. As the tribe were distracted the travellers sneaked out of the cave and hurried to the forest and towards the TARDIS. In the forest Barbara tripped at one point and Ian had to stop and help her up. They started to her the sounds of the tribe following them as they closed in on the desert and Susan raced to the ship with Trixy on her heals soon followed by Barbara and Ian with the Doctor making up the rear. They were all panting as the door closed behind the Doctor and all of them were all too ready to leave.

"Come on, Doctor, get us off! Get us off!" Ian said pulling the old man towards the console.

"Yes" the Doctor said hurrying to do just that. "Yes, it's matching up"

"We're beginning to land" Susan said looking at readings on the console.

"Oh, how I wish" the Doctor said.

"Have you taken us back to our own time?" Ian asked.

"You know I can't do that. Please be reasonable" the Doctor said and Barbara hurried up from the chair behind him.

"What?" Ian said from where he was standing by the console.

"Please, you must take us back. You must" Barbara said coming to a stop in-between Susan and the Doctor.

"You see, this isn't operating properly. Or rather, the code is still a secret. When you put the right data, precise information to a second of the beginning of a journey, then we can fix a destination, but I had no data at my disposal" the Doctor explained moving around the console while Trixy came up to stand beside Susan while rubbing tears from her eyes.

"Are you saying that you don't know how to work this thing?" Barbara asked.

"He's saying that he can't change direction after take-off" Trixy said with a hiccup and Susan swiftly pulled the girl to her side.

"Well of course I can't. I'm not a miracle worker" the Doctor said finishing his walk around the console.

"You can't blame Grandfather. We left the other place too quickly, that's all" Susan defended the old man and she really hoped that was all.

"Just a minute. Did you try and take us back to our own time?" Ian said in a hard voice.

"Well, I got you away from that other time, didn't I?" the Doctor countered but he didn't answer the question.

"That isn't what I asked you" Ian said and it was clear that he was angry with the other male if not to the point of doing something stupid in front of a, in ways, six year old girl.

"It's the only way I can answer you, young man" the alien said before starting to flip switches to bring up an image on the screen. "Now. Now we shall see"

Ian moved to stand beside the other adults while Trixy pulled away slightly to look beside the console. The screen showed off a collection of strange trees not really giving them any clues at all except it seemed very still outside. The trees looked slightly like jungle trees with something wrapped around them like spirals down the trunks and seemingly covered in something white. Everything still, not a leaf moving in the wind, if any were blowing.

"It could be anywhere. Dear, dear, dear, dear. It's no help to us at all. Well, I suggest before we go outside and explore, let us clean ourselves up" the Doctor suggested.

"Oh, yes" Susan said and the others silently agreed but Ian and Barbara threw each other worried looks at what could be outside the ship.

"Come, I'll show you" Trixy said motioning for the adult humans to follow her.

"Now what does the radiation read, Susan?" the Doctor asked as they started to leave.

"It's reading normal, Grandfather" she answered and they left as well.

No one was left to see when the meter turned from normal to danger.

* * *

**And that was the end of those adventures with cavemen! See you next time!**


	5. The Dead Planet

**Hey people, I'm back! It's been a while and I put quite a lot of blame on work for that. Full time job does not give you as much time to wright as you want sometimes. Well anyway, here is the next part of my version of Doctor Who. Let the second serial begin!**

* * *

The Dead Planet

Trixy led Ian and Barbara through the TARDIS and both adults marvelled at how big the ship really was. The girl showed them to a bathroom and pointed out the wardrobe on the other side of the corridor before leaving them to change her own clothes in her room. The Doctor didn't know what her room looked like, the TARDIS had fixed it on her own. She entered the room and quickly climbed the rope ladder to the middle level, opened her wardrobe and looking into it she finally succumbed to the tears. She curled up against the trunk of the tree in the middle of her room. She had barely cried since the night the Doctor and Susan found her so it was actually pretty nice to do before she was done. She really missed them. After maybe thirty minutes she got up, found some new clothes, washed her face and left the room. She was on her way back to the console room when Ian stuck his head out of the bathroom, a plastic stick coming out of his mouth. He tried to say something but it just came out as a few none-comprehensible noises and some white foam in a small spray. He then instead held up a finger and disappeared into the room again. Trixy was completely confused and very curious and as such looked through the door.

"I said, are you okay?" Ian asked turning from the sink. "You look like you've been crying"

"It's nothing" she shook off his concern. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously.

"What? Oh, brushing my teeth" he said realising that she might not have seen a toothbrush before.

"You do that willingly?" Trixy asked in surprise.

"Yeah, don't you?" Ian asked before realising something. "What does your toothbrush look like?"

"Wooden and I think the brush was made off pig hair" the girl answered and Ian grimaced.

"Right, let's find you a plastic one and you tell me the difference" he said and Trixy watched him go through the cabinets in hunt for another toothbrush.

"Why is it smaller than yours? And what is that?" she asked when Ian started spreading some kind of white paste on a green toothbrush he had found.

"It's smaller to fit in your mouth and this" he held up the tube "is toothpaste"

He handed her the toothbrush and she carefully put it in her mouth. It tasted of mint! She grinned up at Ian as the foam formed in her mouth. The man smiled down at her for a moment before turning to try and find something by opening low cabinets and looking under furniture. Looking up at the sink that was too high for her Trixy suspected she knew what it was. She went over to the toilet and spit the foam out before turning to him.

"The stool is in the towel cabinet" she told him and Ian blinked surprised for a moment before chuckling.

They headed back towards the console room a few minutes later to find the other three travellers already there. The Doctor seemed more than ready to head out while Susan was trying to calm Barbara who didn't look all that calm until the last two occupants of the ship entered the room and she relaxed the moment she saw Ian. The man sent her a sympathetic smile as he walked over to her and Trixy watched in fascination. It was sort of like how her parents had always relaxed when the other was close by. She felt tears threatening to spill once more and quickly rubbed her eyes to make them go away.

"So, ready now? It's time we go" the Doctor said and everyone followed him to the door.

Outside the ship was a world like nothing Trixy had ever seen before. Everything was unnaturally white and looking like ash without the black. A strange mist lay over the landscape and a wind blew around them. The trees stood unmoving.

"There's been a forest fire. Everything's sort of white and ashen" Barbara said looking around.

"Funny mist" Ian frowned.

"The heat must have been indescribable. Look at this soil here. Look at it" Trixy was barely aware of the Doctor bending down behind her as she poked at a tree, her finger came away covered in white dust. "It's all turn to sand and ashes. Extraordinary. How can shrubs or trees grow in soil like that, hmm?"

"Something else that's strange. There's quite a breeze blowing" Ian said puzzled.

"Well?" Susan asked confused.

"Nothing is moving" Trixy said and Ian nodded.

"It's not. Everything is absolutely still" Barbara said with a frown before moving further away from the TARDIS.

Trixy stopped to look at Ian as she made to follow the others. He reached up and touched a branch that easily came off with a cloud of dust at his touch.

"Huh. Like stone, look" Ian said coming up to the others. "Very brittle stone. It crumbles when you touch it. Look" he continued breaking the small branch into pieces and handing out to the others.

"It's petrified. How fascinating, a petrified jungle" the Doctor said as he studied not just the piece in his hand but also the trees around them. "Hm. Extraordinary. Yes, I must really investigate that. Couldn't have been heat, then, and age would merely decay"

"What could have caused it, Grandfather?" Susan asked.

Trixy pressed the branch in her hand and it crumbled to dust covering her gloves in the stuff, she tried to brush and hit it off as the Doctor spoke again.

"I don't know, I don't know, but I intend to find out" he said moving further away from the ship.

"Well I'm coming too" Susan said following close behind him.

Trixy made to follow but stopped when she noticed that both adult humans were standing still looking around. She watched them a moment as Barbara moved up to Ian.

"Ian, where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know" the man answered, his eyes scanning his surroundings in a to Trixy familiar matter both from the war veterans on the streets of the London where she had grown up and from her own parents.

"Well why doesn't he take us back?" Barbara continued.

"I'm not sure that he can" Ian answered, a solemn look in his eyes as he looked at Trixy where she stood.

"What, ever?" Barbara said with worry in her voice and Ian looked at her.

Barbara's face was full of sadness and pain as she moved around behind Ian to the other side of him.

"I hate it as much as you. I'm just as afraid. But what can we do?" Ian said and Trixy turned to follow the Doctor and Susan.

She had just come to the realization that unlike her the adults had something to go back to. They had friends and families, jobs and lives. She had none of that. Everyone she knew back home was dead, had died at the same time as her parents. Tears threatened to fall once more and she quickly rubbed them away. There was always a chance that her uncle had survived but he had been in the trenches on the mainland when her parents died so it was also very possible that he was as dead as so many other soldiers. She forced the dark thoughts to the back of her mind as she approached Susan from behind as the older girl bent down beside a tree.

"Oh Grandfather, look! It's a flower. A perfect flower. Well, it's even kept some of it's colour" she told the Doctor who seemed completely uninterested while Trixy stopped beside her.

"Yes, very pretty, very pretty. Hm" he said distracted as he studied yet another tree.

"Wish we had a camera" Trixy said and Susan looked thoughtful.

"There should be one somewhere in the ship if you want one, I'm sure Grandfather wouldn't mind" she said and Trixy smiled.

"I'll look later" she said as Ian and Barbara approached.

"Hey, look. Look what I've found" Susan said turning to the adults.

"Oh, that's beautiful" Ian said coming to his knees beside his student while Barbara moved on among the trees after a quick look at the flower.

Trixy followed behind Barbara as she had already lost interest in the flower, she wasn't all that much for them like other girls seemed to be. Barbara suddenly stopped in shock staring at something. Trixy tried to follow her gaze as the woman started calling for Ian. It was a lizard looking sort of like it was made out of metal. It had a row of spikes along its back and its eyes were on sort of antennas.

"What is it? What's the matter?" she heard Ian's voice from above her and on the other side of Barbara.

Ian carefully moved towards the lizard, Susan and the Doctor had come up behind them and all of them watch as the man moved closer to the unfamiliar animal.

"No!" Barbara stopped Ian before he could get very far and the Doctor moved closer as well.

Ian pulled his hand free from Barbara and swiped it in front of the lizard. It didn't move a muscle.

"It's all right. Like everything else in this place, solid stone" he said knocking on its head with his knuckles.

"It's hideous" Barbara said as she moved closer as well.

Trixy didn't agree, nor did she fully disagree. She thought it looked kind of interesting. She had never seen anything like it before.

"Yes, it is" Ian agreed. "It's also significant. Nothing on Earth could look like this"

"It looks like some sculptor's nightmare" Barbara said having bent down so that she, much like Trixy, was at the same height as the animal that were sitting on a pile of rocks.

"Yes, it's certainly alien to anything on your planet. But you're wrong about one thing, Chesterfield" Trixy frowned, had she gotten the name wrong or was the Doctor that careless not to learn the man's name? Or was he just trying to annoy him? "This isn't like everything else" the Doctor tapped the animal on different parts of its body as he spoke. "The animal is solidified, certainly, but it's not crumbly stone. It's metal. Yes, it always was"

"What, even when it was alive? But that's impossible" Ian said surprised.

"Why? Can't you imagine an animal unless it's flesh, blood and bone, hmm? No, I tell you this is an entirely different formation. I should say originally it was some pliable metal held together by a magnetic field, or an inner magnetic field, rather, and it may have had the ability to attract it's victims towards it, if they were metal too" the Doctor explained removing his glasses that he had put on as he examined the creature while he spoke.

Trixy glanced at the animal. Her mama had told her that all life on Earth was based on coal, or carbon, and that as far as her parents knew her poisonous tongue only worked on creatures like that. That meant that she was defenceless here, even if she didn't like using her tongue.

"We're not on Earth, then" Barbara said standing up and looking worried.

"No, certainly not" the Doctor agreed not really concerned about it.

Barbara looked concerned however as she looked to Ian.

"Are you sure?" the man asked.

"Oh, certain. And you needn't look at me like that, young man. We started this journey far too hurriedly to make any calculations. You know that as well as I do. However, we're alive" the Doctor said walking past the humans towards his granddaughter.

"Hey, Grandfather, look. The jungle ends over there" hearing Susan's words Trixy hurried over to them.

"Should we go look?" Trixy asked and the Doctor nodded.

Trixy noted however that he threw a glance back at Ian and Barbara. He had probably heard how Ian reassured Barbara that she could rely on him, even in this foreign world.

"Hmm, without all the trees I could fix our position by the stars" the Doctor said looking around as they approached the edge of the forest. "Yes, I could do that"

"Really? I'll go and tell Mr Chesterton and Miss Wright" Susan said hurrying back to her teachers.

"Is it even night?" Trixy asked as Susan rushed off.

"What? Of course it is" the Doctor said.

He was completely focused on the sky and Trixy wandered off slightly to a ledge a few meters from the edge of the forest and looked down in the valley below. The valley went on for miles from what she could see standing by a cliff. There was mountains in the distance and just below them was a city. A huge magnificent city with towers and houses and everything. It was all dead however.

"What in the world?" Ian's voice said from just behind her. "What a sight" he continued as Trixy checked that it really was him. "Barbara, Doctor. Over here" Ian called back to the others.

They were heard rushing through the forest and soon showed up behind the man and girl.

"What is it, Chesterton? We really must get back to –" the Doctor started but he didn't finish. "Most fascinating" he said as Susan gasped.

"A city, a huge city" Barbara said also in fascination while holding on tight to Ian.

Trixy's eyes scanned both the area between them and the city as well as the city itself in search of movement. An alien planet with an alien civilisation, this could be fun.

"Well, Doctor? Can you see anything? Any sign of life?" Ian said and Trixy turned to see the Doctor wearing a pair of strange glasses with binoculars instead of normal lenses.

"No, no, no sign of life. No, just buildings. Magnificent buildings, I – I –" he started to say but Susan interrupted him.

"Oh, let me have a look" she said taking the glasses from the man. "It's fabulous. Here, you have a look" she said after a moment before handing the glasses to Barbara.  
"What do you think, Doctor?" Ian asked as Barbara tried the glasses and gazed upon the city.  
"I don't know, I don't know" the Doctor answered as Barbara handed the glasses to Ian. "Whatever it was destroyed the vegetation here certainly hasn't damaged the city. But there's no sign of life. No movement, no light, no" he continued as Ian finally handed the glasses to Trixy. "No, I shall know more about it when I've been down there"  
"Down there?" Barbara asked. "Oh, no. We're going back to the ship" she continued in a stern voice.  
"Now, don't be ridiculous. That city down there is a magnificent subject for study, and I don't intend to leave here until I've thoroughly investigated it" the Doctor told the woman and Trixy removed the glasses and turned to look at them with Ian and Susan.  
"Well it's too late to talk about it now. It's getting dark. We'll discuss it when we get back to the ship" Ian said choosing to take the reasonable side.  
"Yes. Whatever you decide, it's too late to get down there now" Susan agreed.  
"Yes, yes, yes, all right then. But I assure you I'm determined to study that place" the Doctor said not having much of a choice as the sun was on its way down and more and more stars were appearing in the sky.  
"You can do what you like, as long as you don't endanger the rest of us" Ian said before putting an arm around Barbara and starting to walk back.  
"Very well then. I shall look at it myself, alone" the Doctor said accepting the glasses of Trixy as the girl turned to follow the others, one last gaze on the city below in interest.  
"You're the only one who can operate the ship. I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Doctor" Ian said.  
The Doctor chose not to answer and looked out over the city one more time as fog came up around it. The trip back was quite uneventful and nothing at all seemed stranger with the forest than it already had been until they were back at the ship. Trixy and the adults had reached the TARDIS ahead of Susan and suddenly a frightened scream was heard through the still open door. Ian rushed out at once and soon returned with a frightened Susan clinging to him. Soon after the man had gotten her inside she started hugging her grandfather instead shaking in fear. The Doctor led her into an adjoining room to get her to talk.

"What happened?" Trixy asked Ian biting her lip as she tried to reach the door closing switch.

"I don't know, she was terrified" the man said with a frown at the open door. "Which switch is it? You are trying to close the door right?"

"Yeah, the yellow one on this panel" Trixy said pointing at it.

"Are these colour coded or something?" Ian asked gesturing to the controls.

"How am I supposed to know? It's not as if I can fly it" Trixy said looking up at him. "I'm eighteen, remember?"

"You usually get a driving license around that age" Ian countered. "But I see your point"

He went back to study the console intensely and Trixy walked around the console to where Barbara stood smiling as she watched him. Ian, for all his complains, seemed really interested in everything going on and the science behind it all. Barbara started to frown however and turned to look at the door where the Doctor and Susan had gone.

It was about an hour later when the Doctor came out that door. Trixy looked up from the multi-coloured cube she had been turning in her hands as soon as she heard him and when she noticed that Susan hadn't joined him she got up and hurried past the adults and into the room where she found Susan sitting by the table drawing. She scrambled up on one of the chairs and looked at Susan, placing the cube on the table.

"You okay?" she asked and Susan looked up at her with a weak smile.

"There was someone out there" she said and Trixy frowned, there had been no signs of such when they were out but it wasn't impossible, not to her young mind.

Trixy was fast to start dreaming up survivors of some deadly war or beings strangely adapted to the planet when Barbara walked into the room.

"Hello" the woman said to Susan just giving Trixy a glance.

"Hello" Susan answered just glancing up from her drawing for a moment.

"What are you doing?" Barbara asked sitting down on the table before the young alien.

"Just drawing" Susan said sounding slightly detached.

"Well, can I see?" Barbara asked sounding very much like the teacher she were.

Susan must have noticed this as well as she handed over the sketch that from Trixy's point of view looked quite a lot like the flower from earlier. She wasn't surprised, Susan was a good artist.

"It's the flower I saw in the jungle" Susan said as Barbara hadn't actually seen it.

"What happened out there?" the woman asked.

"Nothing" Susan's answer wouldn't even have convinced a real six year old Trixy thought, or maybe it would she realised thinking of her classmates from the few months they had been in 1963. It wasn't likely to fool an adult who worked with children for a profession in any case.

"Ian said you were terrified" Barbara said and Susan glanced up at her for a moment. "Well, something must have frightened you"

"It's not that so much. It's just that I'm, I'm fed up no one believes me" Susan said sounding on the verge of tears.

"I do" Trixy argued as Susan stood up and hugged herself as she leaned against the wall.

"Believes what?" Barbara pressed for the moment ignoring Trixy even though she thought it nice that Susan had someone on her side.

"Oh, I don't know" Susan said.

"That there was someone out there and they touched you on the shoulder?" Barbara asked still perfectly calm and reasonable.

"There was someone there" Susan said, her head snapping up as she spoke.

"But you didn't see who it was?" Barbara asked.

"No" Susan agreed staring to walk along the wall and around behind Barbara. The woman had just picked up the sketchpad again when Susan touched her lightly on the shoulder. "It was like that. A light touch on the shoulder. I couldn't have been mistaken"

"Well, I believe you" Barbara said putting her hands on Susan's arms in what Trixy recognised as an attempt to calm her down.

"But Grandfather says that it's impossible for anyone to live out there" Susan said.

"Oh, Susan, it isn't that he doesn't believe you. It's just that he finds it difficult to go against his scientific facts" Barbara reasoned and Trixy let out a slight grin.

"I know" Susan agreed sounding like she rolled her eyes at the old man.

"Oh, look. Why don't you just try and forget it for the moment?" Barbara said coming up behind the supposed teenager.

"For the moment" Susan agreed, her voice still thick.

"Could anything survive a blast like that?" Trixy asked looking between the two older females. "It didn't exist when you picked me up" she added to Susan.

"Be happy about that, but as far as I know nuclear weapons doesn't exist at such a scale on Earth in the 60s either" Barbara said. "But there were known survivors from the blasts of the bombs that ended World War II"

"Bacteria could survive" Susan said. "And it can always evolve" she explained to Trixy.

"My uncle never really believed that evolution was necessary" Trixy mused. "He said he had always fared good without it"

"Then how would he even come to be?" Susan asked as Barbara started to rub her temples. "Every child is a step in evolution, and you jump a few"

Trixy just shrugged and Susan decided to drop it. Trixy didn't talk a lot about her life before the Doctor and Susan had found her and it wasn't all that long ago so she let it go.

"Are you okay Miss Wright?" she asked.

"No, I suddenly have this headache" the woman answered.

"Oh, let me see, I think we have some headache cure over here" Susan said starting to go through the cupboards. "Fetch me a glass of water, Trixy"

Trixy did as asked and Susan put a few drops of the medicine into the glass just as the Doctor entered. He inquired about Barbara's headache and soon also reminded Susan not to take too much of the medicine, even stopping her physically. While Ian as such was checking on Barbara Trixy heard the Doctor whisper a word to Susan in a language she didn't understand.

"No" Susan agreed as if she realised something. "Oh, Grandfather. I'm sorry I was so silly just now" he patted her on the shoulder and started to fiddle with the one machine in the ship Trixy could fully use as well, though she needed a chair to do so. "Here, try this" Susan added the last part to Barbara as she handed her the water.

"Thank you" the woman said drinking it up while the Doctor got his dinner. "Oh, it's very nice" she said handing the glass back to Susan.

"Let's hope it does you some good" Ian said.

The adults then seemed to notice that the Doctor had food and everyone looked pointly at him, even Trixy.

"Oh, did you want something to eat? What would you like?" the Doctor said as if suddenly remembering he wasn't alone.

"I'd like some bacon and eggs" Barbara decided.

"All right, bacon and eggs" Ian agreed.

"Bacon and eggs" the Doctor said and started telling Susan the numbers to get the mentioned food out of the machine, J62 L6, as he read them of a small book.

Ian and Barbara stood by the side waiting, curious and slightly sceptical.

"I hope mine doesn't taste of engine grease" Ian said earning slight laughs from everyone, even the Doctor as he told him not to be ridiculous.

Barbara offered to get plates and cutlery and for a moment Trixy had to wonder if such even existed on the ship. She hadn't used any on-board since she came to live there. She watched as the Doctor picked out the blocks and handed Ian and Barbara one each with saying once more what it was and afterwards also gave Trixy one.

"What, this?" Ian asked holding up the block.

"Try it" Susan said and Trixy took a second bite of hers, grinning at the taste as she nodded.

They tried it and it was clear they were pleasantly surprised. It was quite a nice meal as they ate with Ian prising the food and Barbara confirming that her headache was gone. Ian fiddled slightly with the machine and Susan declined the Doctor's offer of food. She said she was going to go to bed and offered to show Barbara where she could sleep, just as something tapped outside the ship.

"Shh" Ian said putting a hand on Barbara's and the Doctor's shoulders. "What's that?"

"The scanner" the Doctor said hurrying off as it tapped again.

"There was somebody there" Susan said in a hard voice as she hurried after her grandfather.

The scanner however was completely blank. Or rather, there was only trees as far as they could see. Trixy looked between the adults as they started arguing about if they should stay or not and she started to move away to go and find the camera she had thought about earlier. Then Susan decided that she wanted to leave as well and the Doctor seemed to listen. As such she left the room just as the ship started to shake. She turned around at once, clutching the doorpost to stay upright, as it all calmed down. She watched barely thinking as she watched the other's reacted. Susan run around to check the fault readout. The Doctor and Ian started arguing about the fact that they apparently didn't have any mercury, which what had run out, and that they apparently needed to head to the city to look for more. Trixy's eyes locked on the Doctor and she somehow saw through his charade. She saw that Ian also suspected him but he still agreed to head to the city in the morning. They all filtered out of the room as Susan showed the adults the way to their rooms. Trixy grabbed a hold of the Doctor's arm as he left the console room.

"Is there a camera on-board?" she asked, biting her lip as he looked down at her.

"Hmm? Oh! Yes of course" he said. "Would you want one?"

"Yes please" she said.

The Doctor walked over to one of the round things on the wall and opened it to reveal a storage compartment. Trixy managed to spot an assortment of things in there, most of which she didn't recognise. The Doctor picked out a small leather case, closed the roundel and turned to the girl. He handed her the small package and she opened it to find what probably was a camera but it was way more advanced than any she had ever seen.

"Can I keep it?" she asked and the Doctor shrugged.

"Why not? I don't use it" he said and Trixy lit up as if it was Christmas.

"Thank you!" she said with a brilliant smile.

Trixy hurried out of and missed the slight smile on the Doctor's face as she did so. Children, one of the wonders of the universe.

"Morning Trixy" Susan yawned as she passed the younger girl in the hallway the next morning.

"Morning" Trixy said with a frown at her. "Eyes" she added and Susan blinked at her in confusion.

Trixy just pointed at her own right eye and Susan's mouth formed a small o and she hurried back into her room. Trixy snorted. Susan was as self-conscious about that eye as Trixy was about her hands.

"What's up with her?" Ian asked as he saw the door of Susan's room slam shut as he walked by.

"She forgot something" Trixy answered and the man shrugged.

They walked back to the main area of the ship and found that Barbara had gotten the Doctor to teach her how to use the food synthesiser and as such provided breakfast. Susan came in shortly after rubbing the inner corner of her right eye with a finger and quite readily accepting a bar from Barbara. They moved over to the console as Susan put the last piece of bar into her mouth and the Doctor brought up the scanner.

"Well, it's light enough and there doesn't seem to be anything out there. We might as well get started" Ian said after looking at the screen for a moment. "Oh, and Doctor" he added to the old man. "Remember we're going to this city to find mercury, and once we've found it we're coming straight back here. Is that clear?"

"Oh, quite so, quite so" the Doctor said and Ian looked sceptically after him as he walked of.

Outside the ship everything was as it had been the night before, just lighter. It was quickly decided that Ian should lead the way towards the city but they didn't get many steps before he spotted something on the ground.

"Don't touch it, it might go off" Barbara said.

Ian carefully crouched down beside the box in front of the others to study the box with reminders from Susan to be careful.

"What is it, Chesterton?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know" Ian answered before moving to the other side of the box to pick up a stick. "Stand back, all of you" he said before prodding the box with the stick, covering up his face slightly with his other arm while the other four pressed to the side of the TARDIS in a group.

Nothing happened. Noticing this Ian started to tap the box with the stick instead making it give of a hollow sound.

"I think it's all right" he said approaching the box. "A metal box. It's a box of glass phials. Look" he continued as he picked it up and stood, showing it and it's contents to the others.

Trixy, too short to see into the box where Ian was holding it backed up instead and tried out the camera by snapping a picture of the four of them in front of the TARDIS. She looked at the screen of the device where she could see the picture she had just taken, she would have to convince Susan to show her how to get it as a photo later.

"Then there was somebody here last night. They must have dropped them. I knew I was right" Susan said and Trixy made her way back to them.

"Yes. Sorry, Susan" Ian said.

"Yes, I'd like to run a few tests on those. Susan, would you take these into the ship, please?" the Doctor asked and she did as asked. "Oh, and by the way, did you remember the food supplies?"

"Yes. A day's supply for five. That's enough, isn't it?" Susan called from inside the ship.

"Yes, ample, ample" the Doctor agreed.

"I trust we won't be more than a couple of hours" Ian said to the Doctor. "You ready, Susan?"

"Yes" the young woman said stepping out of the ship.

"Come on, then. Off we go" Ian said and they moved away through the trees.

It took them more than an hour just to get to the city and it was huge. Trixy got the distinct feeling that if they weren't very lucky this could take quite some time.

"Do you mind if I sit down for a minute? I feel a bit exhausted" the Doctor, who had been leaning of Susan for the past fifteen minutes, asked as he sat down leaning against a wall.

"You all right?" Ian asked, he was clearly the one of the group in the best physical condition as he was the one looking the least tired in Trixy's eyes.

"Yes, I'm just a bit tired. It was a long journey and my legs are rather weak" the old man said.

"Why don't you rest here?" Barbara suggested. "Ian and I will look around and see if we can –"

"No, no, no, no, I want to look around too. I shall be all right, thank you" the Doctor interrupted her, and Trixy rolled her eyes as she snapped another picture of the view of the city from where they were standing, the Doctor seeing the city was after all the reason they were even here.

"I must say, I don't feel too good myself" Ian said as Barbara started to investigate a piece of the wall that looked different just beside where the Doctor sat. "Look, why don't we get this over with quickly. Look for instruments, gauges, anything like that. Ideally what we want is a laboratory"

Just then Barbara seemed to find a switch for the wall, which of course was a door, because it swung open, something she at once made Ian aware of. The man moved up beside her and they both looked into the corridor beyond the door.

"Why don't we separate and go different ways and meet back here in say, ten minutes. All right?" Ian suggested and both he and Barbara checked their watches.

"Fine. I'll go this way" Barbara said disappearing through the open door.

"Would you lend me your arm, would you, Susan? Thank you" The Doctor said leaning on Susan to get up.

"Trixy, are you going with Mr Chesterton or us?" Susan asked.

"Okay if I go with you?" Trixy asked looking up at Ian who gave a slight smile and a nod.

The Doctor and Susan moved away while Ian started to look for a way to open another door. Trixy started to help by waving her hands by the side of the door trying to find what it could be that opened them. Her hand flashed by a strange round contraption on the wall and the door swung open. Ian looked down at her and she just shrugged.

"This has to be how they are operated" he said looking at the round thing. "Good to know, come on"

The corridors were narrow, all white and metallic. There was something about them that made it crawl along Trixy's spine. There was also a severe lack of doors leading away from the corridor and they seemed to go on for ages.

"This is a strange city" Ian muttered.

"I don't like it" Trixy said and the man nodded.

"Neither do I, but I kind of wonder what sort of society lived in a place like this" he said.

"Or lives" Trixy corrected.

"What?" Ian was slightly alarmed by that statement.

"In books and stories, abounded cities are never this clean" Trixy pointed out with a nod to the dust free floor. "Someone bothers to clean this place"

"Or it's automatic, but why would you leave that on when the lights don't seem to work properly" Ian said glancing into a dark side corridor.

"Not sure I want to know" Trixy confessed, then snorted as Ian had forgotten to duck under one of the many arches in the corridor.

"It's been almost ten minutes" Ian said soon after as they checked one of the few rooms they had come across. "Let's head back and find the others"

They headed back outside where they met up with Susan and the Doctor.

"Ah, there you are. Any luck?" Ian asked.

"No. How about you?" Susan answered.

"No, no luck" Trixy said, holding hard to her head that was hurting quite bad.

"Barbara should be here by now" Ian said checking his watch. "Barbara! Barbara! We'll give her a couple of minutes more, and then if she's not back we'll have to go and look for her"

The minutes snailed past. Trixy accepted some water from Susan feeling weaker by the second. Ian was almost constantly looking at his watch.

"We've waited long enough for her. We must go and find her" he said.

Turning to the door where Barbara had gone he managed to open it and they were of down the corridor that lay in half darkness.

* * *

**And that is it this time, hopefully it won't take as long to the next one. After all, everyone who knows where they are probably want to see the old favorites that are coming up. Well, see you next time!**


	6. The Survivors

**Hi again! This story is going to take ages to complete I've realised but I'm determined to do this. Anyway, let's meet an old, well known group of characters for the first time. So, Allons-y!**

* * *

The Survivors

The corridors that lay before them were empty. Trixy briefly wondered how they were ever going to find Barbara in that place. She hoped that Ian starting to call her name from the moment they entered the corridor would help actually. It wasn't actually a clear corridor they stood in, it was more of a room with loads of doors in many directions. Susan, still steadying the Doctor, walked up to a door and opened it to a dark room.

"Miss Wright?" she called.

Ian repeated the action on another door on the other side of the room.

"Why is everywhere but the corridors dark?" Trixy asked quietly.

"Kind of wish I knew the answer to that one" Ian mumbled in answer.

"Hey, there's a corridor over here" Susan called and Ian hurried over to them.

"We might as well see where it goes to. Come on" Ian said moving to take off down the corridor while Trixy still stumbled towards them across the room.

The Doctor stopped everyone however as he heard something. There was a strange ticking noise and they started to follow it around the room. Trixy finally reached them as Ian opened a door to one of the rooms.

"Are you okay, Trixy?" Susan asked and the girl could just shake her head.

"Ah, this is more hopeful. We ought to find some mercury here" Ian said entering the room.

"Measuring equipment. But measuring what? Look here. Look at this drum. The ink's still quite wet" the Doctor said looking at one of the machines.

Trixy had followed Susan further into the room and the older girl looked quite tempted to pick her up. They soon found the source of the ticking and Susan announced it to the Doctor and Ian.

"It's a Geiger counter" she said as Ian came up to them.

"But look at the needle! It's past the danger point" Ian said and Trixy tiredly stretched to try and see.

"Yes, yes, that explains a lot of things, doesn't it. A jungle turned to stone, the barren soil and the fact that we're not feeling well" the Doctor said.

"Radiation sickness?" Ian asked and just from the tone of his voice Trixy could hear that it was bad and she both had no clue what it was and were not feeling well at all.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. The atmosphere here is polluted with a very high level of fallout, and we've been walking around in it completely unprotected" the Doctor gave for an answer.

Trixy lost the conversation there for quite a while just trying to focus on staying upright. The only thing she caught was that the Doctor had indeed bluffed about the link to be able to see the city. There was quite the argument starting when she finally managed to get her focus back.

"No! It's time you faced up to your responsibilities. You got us here. Now I'm going to make sure that you get us back" Ian said and Trixy looked between him and the Doctor as Ian made sure they were going to look for Barbara.

Just outside the room where something done of them had expected though and Susan at once pressed herself against the Doctor with a small scream. Trixy stared as if through a fog at the things standing before them. Big machines with what looked like a sink plunger and a whisk for arms, a lower body without legs covered in small half-spheres, a dome thing with two lamps seemingly serving as head and a single eyestalk sticking out on the front of the dome. Trixy's blood ran cold. There was something familiar about these things even though she had never seen them before. She got the distinct feeling that she didn't want to remember.

"You will move ahead of us and follow my directions. This way. Immediately" one of the creatures said and the monotone voice made Trixy feel colder than just their appearance had.

The Doctor and Susan started to follow the order and the Doctor almost pushed Susan before him as he did so. Susan meanwhile had a hand on Tryxy's shoulder as to not let the girl remain behind. Ian didn't follow however.

"I said immediately!" the creature repeated when Ian hesitated to follow the command.

The other three humanoids turned as one of the creatures gave order to fire. Ian had tried to run away and had now been shot. He collapsed on the ground with a cry and even the Doctor stiffened.

"My legs! My legs!" he said holding onto said body part with a hand.

Susan rushed back towards him with Trixy and the Doctor on her heals. They were stopped from reaching him however by one of the creatures' plunger arm.

"Stop!" the creature said.

One of the other creatures moved over to Ian.

"Your legs are paralysed. You will recover shortly unless you force us to use our weapons again. In that case, the condition will be permanent. You three, help him" it said and the other time travellers hurried towards Ian.

Trixy knew that she was only morally supporting the other three because there was no way she could help in getting Ian anywhere. She saw the shock and possible fear in Ian's face as he repeated what they had all guessed, his legs were out of use.

* * *

"Stop here" the creature said and they came to the stop outside a door.

The creature opened the door and they entered to find something great they hadn't expected as Susan and the Doctor carried Ian inside.

"Susan! Trixy!" Barbara's voice was heard and the woman rushed up to them.

"Miss Wright!" Susan said as happily as she could muster as the door slid closed behind them.

"Barbara, thank heaven we've found you. Are you all right?" Ian said in obvious relief.

"Yes" Barbara said starting to assist the Doctor who looked ready to fall over. "What's the matter? What's happened?" she asked looking to how the two aliens were holding up Ian.

"Oh, I'm all right" Ian said.

"He tried to get away and they hurt him" Susan explained.

"Can't you stand up?" Barbara asked sounding worried.

"Not without help" Ian admitted. "The feeling's coming back, don't worry" Ian said and Trixy who was trying to shake off the effects of the radiation sickness saw him dart a glance at the Doctor who looked almost as ready to fall over as Ian.

"Come over here" the woman said and they moved over to a bench where Ian was more or less just dumped down, not that he seemed to mind. The Doctor soon sunk down beside him followed by Susan on the man's other side while Barbara took a seat next to Ian. Trixy sank to the floor and leaned against Ian's useless legs, at least he would know when he got the feeling back.

Ian started to question Barbara about her wellbeing and what had happened to her. Trixy listen as closely as she could manage to the tale of how she was led through the place in what sounded like a more complicated way than they had came. She mentioned a lack of furniture and only usage of lifts, then a strange question came up, if there was anything inside their captors. It continued to telling Barbara about the radiation sickness.

"Well, what's going to happen to us?" Barbara asked.

"Well, unless, unless we get treatment, we shall die. Yes, we shall die" the Doctor murmured.

A chill ran through them all and an eerie quiet came about them. Trixy turned her thoughts inwards trying to figure out why the creatures were familiar. She had heard about something like them before, she knew she had but she couldn't come up with where. An image of her uncles arguing as they tried to tell her a story shimmered past her mind. It had something to do with them. Her mind started to wander, just lifts, no furniture except a few tables. If there was something in there it either had no use for such things or it couldn't get out. The door opened and two of the creatures came to drag away the Doctor, hopefully only to interrogate him and not exterminate him. Exterminate? He wasn't a bug, why had her mind moved to that word so easily. It was there. Somewhere in her mind there was a connection between that word and these creatures.

Ian slapped his legs lightly behind her and Trixy skirted away to allow him to try his movement.

"Is it better?" she asked looking up at him.

"A bit" he said "Well, let's try it out"

Ian tried to stand up and at once Barbara was at his side steadying him, Susan soon joining on the man's other side. Barbara nodded to the bench around the room and Trixy scrambled up on it in case Ian would fall she wouldn't be as much in the way.

"Is it any easier?" Barbara asked after they had walked back and forth for a couple of minutes.

"Yes, I think it is" Ian answered even though even Trixy could see that only one leg was working properly. "I'm going to try and stand on my own"

"Be careful" Susan warned him.

"I'll be all right. Oh, that's not too bad, is it?" Ian said cheerfully standing quite wobbily, Trixy had to bit her lip as to not laugh.

"Why don't you sit down for a minute?" Barbara said in concern.

"No, no, no. I'll be all right" Ian said but as soon as he took a step he fell over forwards. Trixy froze in her seat.

"No good" Ian said in annoyance as the females helped him up and Trixy let out a laugh as she saw he wasn't hurt more.

The laugh caused Ian to send the girl a smile as the adult, or almost adult, females led him to the bench.

"How are you feeling, Barbara?" Ian asked as the woman sunk down beside him holding her forehead as if it hurt.

"Not too good" the woman admitted.

"Trixy?" he said turning to the girl on his other side.

"Varies, but not good" she answered and it really did vary, one moment was better than the other, she briefly wondered if it was due to her two different species.

"Susan?" Ian continued looking at the older girl who was still standing up.

"Well, it doesn't seem to have affected me as much as the rest of you" she answered.

The door opened and the Doctor entered. He looked quite miserable as Susan cried out for him and hurried to his side. She took hold of him and steadied him to the bench.

"Are you all right?" Ian asked.

"What happened?" Susan asked in concern.

"In a moment, child. The phial of drugs left outside the Tardis, remember?" the Doctor asked panting as he spoke.

"Yes, what about them?" Barbara asked.

"It's possible that they may have been anti-radiation gloves. Drugs. I can't be certain, but it does give us a chance. The people here, whoever they may be, are very eager to get hold of them" the Doctor explained.

This revelation caused Ian and Barbara to have a short discussion about who of them that was to go, both very keen on that the other one didn't go. Trixy would have offered to go but she didn't think they would let her.

"Whoever goes must be very careful. As far as I can ascertain, the creatures out there are the ones who dropped the box. They're called Thals. They're mutations" the Doctor said as he moved up to sit in a corner on the bench, Trixy moving out of his way over Ian's lap.

"So it wasn't our captors who left the drugs behind?" Ian asked as he and Susan helped the Doctor in place with his back against the wall.

"No. If they were drugs. I've learnt quite a lot from the Daleks" the Doctor said and that last word struck something in Trixy.

"The who?" Ian asked.

"The Daleks, our captors here. Oh, if I didn't feel so. Oh. But I was right about the neutron bomb. The Daleks built this underground city as a kind of huge shelter" the Doctor said.

Trixy was paling more and more for every second. None of the older beings in the room noticed as the Doctor fainted while Ian asked about the Thals. Trixy's thoughts were on something else though. While the others tried to come up with who was going to go and Susan revealed that it wasn't as easy as giving someone the key to get in Trixy tried to remember where she had heard the word Dalek before. It had something to do with her Uncles and a great fear that made her shudder. She jumped and scrambled as quickly as she could manage to a weak Barbara's side as the door opened.

"You must leave now" the Dalek that came inside said.

"I'm not well enough yet" Ian argued.

"You must leave now" the alien repeated.  
"My legs are still –" Ian tried.  
"Which one of you is going?" the Dalek continued without a pause.

Ian tried to get up and walk, managing a few steps before he fell over again.

"You must give me more time" he said but Trixy didn't have high hopes of the creature to listen.

"Can't you see how weak he is?" Susan asked after having helped Ian to a place beside Barbara.

"There are others" the Dalek said.

Barbara tried to stand but seemed close to falling the moment she got on her feet causing Ian to pull her down again.

"Oh, Ian, I can't. The whole room's going round" she said panting.

Trixy watched the scene in fear, it leaned towards Susan going alone, if she didn't join her and she wasn't sure she had the energy. Ian also seemed to come to the same conclusion and looked determined at Susan.

"Must I? Alone?" Susan said. She threw a quick look at Trixy but seemed to dismiss the idea quickly, deeming it safer for the younger girl to remain where she was.

"You can't let her go alone. She's just a child. Plead with them. Anything!" Barbara said but Ian kept his eyes on Susan until Barbara had finished speaking when he looked at the woman who was breaking down. Trixy briefly noticed a tender look in his eyes, she smiled slightly knowing all too well where she had seen that look before.

"Susan, you see how ill they both are. We can't afford to wait until I can walk. An hour might make all the difference" Ian said to the young alien taking her hands. "Trixy fluctuates too much between good and bad to be safe for you to bring and speed is important"

"I'm so afraid" Susan said.

"You can do it" Trixy encouraged.

"Go on" Ian agreed with the girl.  
"Yes" the supposed teenager nodded clearly trying to overcome her fear.  
"Don't stop for anything. Straight there, straight back" Ian said and Susan nodded, eyes closed as she gathered her courage.

"Are you ready?" the Dalek's monotone voice asked.

"Yes, all right" Ian snapped before releasing Susan's hands.  
"I'm coming now" she told the Dalek which herded her out of the room, she just stopped for a moment as the door opened to look back at them before she was gone.

"Ian, the others in the forest" Barbara said weakly. "He said they were mutations"  
"But what else could I do?" Ian asked and the room fell quiet.

It was several minutes before someone opened their mouth again and then it was a weak voice from Trixy.

"But isn't all life mutations? Isn't that how evolution works?" she asked and both adults turned to look at her and even as the room fogged over she saw hope in their eyes.

* * *

Everything was dark. Trixy looked around trying to make something out, anything. Then suddenly everything around her was in flames. She clutched the backpack in her arms tighter to herself as she looked around in fear. The heat of the flames seemed to lick her and she cried out for her parents. A crash came behind her and she started to run couching through the familiar corridors that seemed to stretch much farther than ever before. A male voice called out from up ahead and she found herself almost tumble down the stairs. The smoke made it hard to breath and to see, she called out for her uncle as she tried to make her way down the stairs. He met her beneath the staircase and rushed her towards the door. Just as she reached it the ceiling above them collapsed. She cried out once again but it never hit her. She looked up and could barely see her uncle holding it up with his bare hands. The sleeves of his suit slowly catching fire she knew he looked down at her as he shouted.

"Run boy! Get out of here!"

Trixy scrambled through the door and down the stairs before turning to look up at the house. Her uncle's fighting cry was faintly heard as she heard something collapse again.

"No!" she cried, her vision blurring from tears. "NO!"

She feels someone touching her arm and starts to trash to get loose just for more hands to join the first.

"NO! MOM!" she screamed. "Mama help!"

"Trixy! Trixy!" a male voice sounded soon also followed by a female.

"Trixy, you have to wake up, it's a nightmare" the female voice said but Trixy just kept trashing.

Then there is something wet, her face is full of water. That wasn't her tears. She stilled and started to blink.

"Ian!" the female voice said accusingly and Trixy could almost see the glare Barbara shot the man.

"I'm open for suggestions if you have any" Ian's voice sounded. "She needs to wake up, sleeping might help put whatever dreams she's having won't"

"She's burning up" Barbara said and Trixy blinked her eyes open to see her face above her looking down in concern.

"Hurry Susan, hurry" Ian's voice said from beside her as well.

Trixy took a deep breath and stared up at the ceiling of their cell, hurry Susan indeed.

* * *

**And we have Daleks. Quite a bit different from what they will become. That's it for this time now, so, see you next time!**


	7. The Escape

**Hi everyone! Finally finished this, sorry it took so long. It takes time when work and other parts of life has to take first place. The goal is to finish this serial before too long but who knows. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

The Escape

"How much do you know about radiation poisoning?" Barbara asked Ian.

The man was on his knees beside the bench where Trixy lay breathing shakingly, he had a hand on the girl's arm and looked up at the woman who was tiredly pulling her fingers through the child's hair.

"Not much" he admitted. "But like most illnesses it supposedly strike children and the elderly hardest" he continued and three pairs of eyes turned to look at the Doctor.

"But" Trixy's voice was weak but both adults heard her and turned back to her. "He's not human"

"Yeah, kind of figured that" Ian said and Barbara turned to stare at him instead. "Don't tell me you hadn't guessed that"

The woman sighed and Trixy felt her hand run through her hair again. The girl struggled to keep awake as Ian stood up and carefully moved Trixy so he could sit with her head in his lap and an arm around Barbara beside him.

"I – I tried not to think it" she said leaning into Ian's shoulder. "But yes, I guessed that"

They were quiet for a few minutes, the sound of their weak breaths mixing in the silent cell. Trixy twitched her neck slightly to look up at the other two.

"How long was I out?" she asked.

"An hour, hour and a half, something like that" Ian said with as much of a shrug as he could manage. "It's hard to tell in here"

Suddenly the door opened and in hurried Susan, the door closing swiftly behind her. She was smiling and at once started to babble away in a language none of the three awake inhabitants of the cell could understand, in her hands were a box.

"Susan" Ian interrupted her. "Please speak English, and did you get them?"

"Yes, Mr Chesterton" the girl said holding up the box. "We just need some water to make it work easier"

"Have you asked for it?" the man asked and the girl nodded glancing at her grandfather. "Have you taken them?" he continued earning another nod. "Good then Trixy and your grandfather are next"

"What about you?" Susan asked and Barbara shot him a weak frown at his self-sacrificing.

"It affect the elderly and children more" was the answer "they are worse of"

Susan nodded in understanding as the door opened to let a Dalek enter, leave some water and disappear again. Susan hurried over to the levitating tray with a few strangely shaped water bottles, spent a few moments trying to figure out how to open them before just grabbing the edge of the tray and pulling it back to the others.

"Give me that" Trixy said reaching for the bottle and Susan handed it to her as she was on a total loss on how to open it.

Trixy put her index and middle fingers together as well as her ring finger and pinkie together leaving her thumb free before twisting the top of the bottle of as if she had always done it. She looked up at Susan who was fast to give the younger girl her share of the drugs. Gulping down the water Trixy sighed in relief.

"Your immune system should also be the fastest to recover" Ian said to the group's youngest member. "Hurry to your grandfather Susan"

"Here" the supposed teenager said handing Ian the drugs with some quick instructions on how to use them for himself and Barbara.

Trixy sat up and watched as Ian figured out how to open another water bottle and poured it into bowls which he and Barbara then used as cups while taking the drugs. On the floor was a strange cloak that Susan must have dropped when she entered. It was obvious that Ian and Barbara was already feeling better as well. Barbara had moved to the floor while Susan desperately tried to get the Doctor better. While working Susan told them of how she had gotten a second stash of drugs from a Thal called Alydon.

"The Thal said the drug would act quickly" Susan said trying to give the old alien more water.

"Don't give him any more water, Susan" Ian said having taken the Doctor's pulse. "His pulse is steady now anyway, if a bit fast"

"No, binary vascular system, it should be faster than yours" Susan said and Ian blinked.

"Binary – you have two hearts?" he asked and Susan nodded. "Oh, why not" the man shrugged taking a seat at the bench.

"My arms are tingling" Barbara said after a moment rubbing down said limbs.

"Yes, Alydon said you'd feel that. It just means the drug's working, that's all" Susan said.

"This Alydon of yours seems to have kept his wits about him. Giving you that extra supply of drugs" Ian said.

"Yes. It was strange when the Daleks found it. I thought first of all they were going to keep both lots. Then they suddenly seemed to change their mind and gave the second lot back to me" Susan said frowning lightly.

"The Thals still seem friendlier" Trixy said and the adults nodded in agreement.

"Oh, yes. Alydon gave me this cloak to keep me warm" Susan said lifting the strange garment from the floor.

"Looks sort of more like scales than skin" Trixy commented. "But nice"

"Why do the Daleks think they're mutations?" Barbara asked confused as Susan had described Alydon as humanoid.

"I don't know. Judging by Alydon, they're magnificent people" Susan said hugging the cloak to her and Barbara let out a small giggle while Ian rolled his eyes.

Trixy blinked, she didn't really understand what was funny. She silently figured that it probably was an adult and teenaged thing, like romantic love. She knew her parents had had it and had seen it in books and sort of in real life but the real concept of it? Still escaped her.

"Susan" came the Doctor's voice weakly and the girl in question hurried over to him.

"Grandfather? You'll feel better soon. I brought the drugs back" she said putting her arm under his head while Barbara took his hand.

"Give me a little while and then we must go back to the ship" the old alien said still quite out of it not realising what was going on.

"No, we're still prisoners" Susan corrected.

"Oh, are we? Oh, yes. Well, we must leave here soon. We must, must leave. Yes" the Doctor said and Trixy frowned, did he just mean in general or did he know something they didn't?

"As soon as grandfather's properly awake we must try and find a way of helping the Thals" Susan said standing up.

"We can't even help ourselves, locked up in here like this" Barbara said rubbing her arms.

Susan then started to tell the story of what had happened to the Thals, how the lack of rain threatened to starve them if they didn't get a deal with the Daleks. What was it with Daleks? They reminded Trixy of something but she couldn't remember what. It had something to do with her uncle…

* * *

It was a several hours later, a few of them even spent asleep, that a Dalek entered the room startling them awake as it neared the door. It was just as well, none of them had felt all that safe to sleep anyhow and Trixy had been more or less awake for the last hour after another nightmare.

"We have brought you food and more water" the Dalek said and Barbara accepted the tray of it. "The girl is to come with me" it said turning it's eyestalk at Susan.

"Why?" Ian frowned.

"It's all right" Susan assured him.

"Well, what are they going to do to her?" Barbara asked, also frowning.

"She will be returned. We are going to help the Thals, which is what you want us to do. Come now" the Dalek said and Susan left with the creature.

"I can't understand" the Doctor said after the door closed. "Why have they taken Susan?"

"How do they know we want to help the Thals?" Ian asked looking around the room with narrowed eyes.

"You combine sound with film in your time, right?" Trixy asked looking at Ian and Barbara who nodded.

The Doctor's eyes widened. He pointed at Trixy and mimed something that to the girl looked mostly like he was waving his fingers. As her eyebrows raced up her forehead the alien frowned.

"Pen and paper" he said quietly glancing around the room.

Trixy's eyes widened and produced said items from a pocket.

"Can we eat?" she asked wanting a reason to be closer to the Doctor. "I'm hungry"

"Of course" Barbara said. "As long as we save some for Susan"

"What is that?" Trixy asked as they sat down. She slipped the notepad and pencil she had found in her pocket to the Doctor as Barbara started to divide the food. The old alien scribbled something on the paper and passed it to Barbara as he accepted his food of her.

"We don't know more than you, think it's safe Doctor?" Ian asked looking at him.

"Hm? Oh, yes, it should be safe enough" the Doctor said his eyes unclouded by age as they followed the notepad into Ian's hands.

"I get the feeling that Daleks prefer other ways to kill if they need to" Trixy muttered causing the adults to look at her in concern.

"Let's enjoy the food in any case if there's no danger" Ian concluded slipping the notepad back to Trixy who read it with a glance.

_Camera and microphone, possibly more than one_, was written in the Doctor's strangely rounded and wrongly tilted handwriting. Having seen the way he wrote his own language she paid it no mind that his handwriting was a bit off. She glanced around the room as they ate and waited for Susan to return. As the minutes ticked on however most of them got more and more worried.

"But how long are they going to keep Susan, Doctor?" Ian asked after a while.

"What do they want with her?" Barbara agreed.

"Perhaps they're going to let us go. I don't know" the Doctor said with a sigh. "We can just hope she returns soon"

She did. Susan returned soon after with news that they had been right about the camera and she even managed to point it out. A quick, simple but bold plan was hatched and Ian moved into position out of the camera's sight. Trixy pulled herself up on the edge to be out of the way. Due to her age, but mainly her size, she had gotten the role of just looking horrified on the side-lines as the Doctor and Ian staged a fight. It began as an argument, the Doctor taking the Daleks' side and Ian took the Thals. Barbara stood by Ian's side and it was getting clear to Trixy that those two would always have each other's backs. Ian walked up to the Doctor and grabbed him after accusing him to accept bribe from the Daleks. Barbara and Susan stepped in about then with Barbara appearing to pull the two males apart while Susan pushed at Ian from the edge around the room to get him to leave her Grandfather alone. After a few moments of confusion Susan jumped onto Ian's back and he released the Doctor and stumbled across the room with Susan on his back towards the camera.

"Susan, what are you doing?" Barbara asked rushing over to pull the girl from Ian's back.

They were straight underneath the camera by then however and Susan grabbed it and pulled it out as she and Ian tumbled to the floor.

"Did I hurt you?" Ian asked as he picked up the camera.

"No, of course you didn't" Susan said laughing slightly.

"Don't waste time" the Doctor said and Ian gripped the camera with a grim look.

"Fix you for a while" he said.

* * *

They were safe from the spying, at least for now. Now they could at least discuss how they would get out without being overheard. That didn't take them long though.

"The point is, how do we get out of here? Wait until the Daleks open the door, and force the issue?" the Doctor asked.

"But we'd never get near them" Barbara protested.

"We must try and trick them. We must all pretend to be dead. Then when they come in to investigate, we must rush down the corridor –" Susan said but Trixy interrupted her.

"And then? There are possibly hundreds of Daleks here, we wouldn't be able to get out" she said earning nods in agreement from the two humans.

"She is right, we must find a way of putting these machines out of action" Ian said.

"Yes. Remember what they did to your legs" Barbara agreed.

Ian agreed and Trixy silently thought that these creatures probably could, and would, do much worse than paralyze their legs if they wanted to.

"The floors are metal" the Doctor realised, pointing down as he took a few steps forward. "All the floors are metal"

"Well, so are the streets of the city outside" Barbara said.

"Why?" the Doctor asked.

"Isn't this place some kind of bunker for post war radiation?" Trixy asked confused. "Maybe they used metal because of that?"

"Some things really makes one wonder at what rate your mind age" Barbara said shaking her head at the girl. "I don't know why, Doctor"

"No, I know you don't know. I mean, why do they use metal? Is it because it lasts longer? Or because –" the Doctor said trying to lead them on the right track but Trixy got the feeling that he didn't even realise that himself.

"Because it's essential to them. That's an idea" Ian interrupted the Doctor.

"Well how is that going to help us?" Barbara asked.

"Well, if metal is essential –" Ian started before the Doctor reversed the rolls from a moment before.

"No, no, no, now listen. Let's concentrate on the Daleks. Have you noticed, for example, that when they move about there's a sort of acrid smell?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, yes, I've noticed that" Susan agreed.

"I know. A fairground" Barbara said.

"That's it. Dodgems" Ian realised where he also recognised the smell from.

"It's electricity. I think they're powered that way" the Doctor said.

"Yes. But just a minute. They have no pick-up or anything. And only the base of the machine touches the floor. How do they complete the circuit?" Ian asked thoughtfully.

"Batteries?" Susan suggested.

"No, no. I believe the Daleks have discovered a way to exploit static electricity. Very ingenious, if I'm right" the Doctor said crunching down to put a hand on the floor.

"What, drawing power from the floor?" Barbara asked, she and Susan had crunched down beside the old man.

"That means they are stuck in the city?" Trixy asked, she was watching the discussion in fascination trying to understand what they were saying.

"Precisely. If I'm right, of course. Now, what do we know apart from guessing how they are powered?" the Doctor continued the speculations.

"Well, they can see all round them" Susan said.

"Yes. Their eye is flexible, like a large camera lens" Barbara agreed.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes. Now, Chesterton, do you mind concentrating, young man?" the Doctor said turning to Ian who was still crunched on the floor thinking.

"Hmm?" the man said looking up. "Susan. The cloak the Thals gave you" he asked pointing at the young woman.

"Yes, it's just behind you" she answered slightly confused.

Ian reached behind him and pulled it forth to study.

"Barbara, come here. What do you think this is made of?" he asked as the woman came down beside him soon followed by Susan, Trixy and the Doctor.

"I don't know. It isn't plastic, I don't think it's nylon either" Barbara answered fingering the material.

"We sure it isn't organic?" Trixy asked and Ian nodded.

"Whatever it is, it'll do for what we want" he said.

"And what will it do, young man? Hmm?" the Doctor asked sounding sceptical.

"Insulate" Ian said at once and everyone stopped to stare at him. "If you are right, Doctor, about the Daleks taking up power from the floor, this is a perfect way of putting them out of action" he continued to smiles all around as he finished speaking.

"Can I ask something?" Trixy said and all the older beings in the room turned to her. "What are dodgems?"

* * *

They spent maybe half an hour explaining concepts of the plan, including dodgems as Ian and Barbara soon realised Trixy wasn't the only one who had never seen them. Someone always kept an ear to the door however and in the end it was Susan who heard the approach of their captors.

"Shh. It's coming" she said moving slightly away from the door.

"Ready?" the Doctor asked and they nodded.

"Now all of you watch very carefully. See that you notice every detail in that machine, right?" the Doctor said and everyone nodded again.

"Move back from the door" the Dalek that started to enter said still standing in the doorway. Susan and Ian did as asked, the man making sure to keep his hand with the camera in behind his back. "Take the food" the creature continued and Susan dis as asked.

As the younger alien handed the food to her grandfather the Dalek backed out of the doorway. Ian moved back towards the door as soon as it was too closed for the Dalek to see through. The Doctor held up a hand to stop him, probably from doing anything rash from what Trixy could see.

"I'll be able to jam the door with a piece of this" Ian said holding up the camera.

"It seemed to be able to cover all of us" Susan said in concern.

"It's impossible to hide from it" Barbara agreed.

"Yes. Perhaps we can throw a coat over the lens" Ian suggested.

"Surely it would see you" Barbara argued.

"Yes. Doctor, perhaps we can stage something. You know, a distraction. And when the lens looks the other way, throw something over it" Ian said.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes" the Doctor agreed thoughtfully.

"Now, wait a minute. Susan, throw me your shoes" Barbara said and Susan did as asked.

Barbara started picking soil of the shoes and put it in a bowl with water. They all looked confused at the woman, the look on the Doctor's face told Trixy he was wondering if this was normal human behaviour.

"What are you up to?" Ian asked curiously.

"Making mud" Barbara answered and Trixy laughed.

Soon the girl was joined by Ian in her laughter and after another moment also Susan while a ghost of a smile played on the Doctor's lips. Trixy also pulled her shoes off to provide more soil and Barbara smiled at her.

"What do you think they are?" Trixy asked as Barbara started to mix the mud with the girl's pencil. "Robots or tanks?"

"I don't know" Ian said. "I'm slightly hoping for tanks because a tank of that size we should be able to move and maybe pretend one of us is a Dalek. Theory, Doctor?"

"Hmm? Tanks, there is something living in there but what it could possibly be I don't know" the Doctor answered. "Not anything good I imagine"

"Must be pretty small though" Trixy frowned. "Maybe the armour is the only way it can do anything" she grimaced.

Her uncle had always said that an armour should be more of a uniform than anything else. She did know that most armour included protection but one man, or probably one man, tanks? Somehow it seemed wrong. Had it been something her uncle said? She could vaguely remember both her uncles agreeing that an army of one person tanks was cheap tactic but really not something you ever wanted to meet. Was that what they were facing? An army of one man tanks filled with some mutated creatures almost too horrible to imagine.

"Trixy? Are you okay?" Susan asked placing a hand on the younger girls shoulder startling her out of her musings.

"Yeah" the half human said. "Just thinking"

* * *

They spent several hours waiting for the Dalek to return. They all knew the Dalek would come back eventually as they seemed willing to feed them. They had worked out a system for when the Daleks was coming and as such the Doctor constantly kept an eye at his pocket watch.

"If it's on time, we have three minutes" he said.

"I'm ready" Ian said standing up and moving towards the door and laying down beside it.

"How's the mud?" the Doctor asked Barbara who was baking the substance into a pad.

"It's very sticky and very nasty" the woman answered with a grimace.

"Very good. Very good idea" the Doctor said with a grin on his face.

"Shall I spread the cloak over?" Susan asked rising from said object.

"Yes, yes" the Doctor agreed and Trixy moved to help out. "Not too near the door. We don't want to make it suspicious"

"Just down there?" Susan asked pointing to the floor.

"Yes, yes. Quickly. Good, children" the doctor said as the two girls spread the cloak.

"It's coming" Ian said listening by the door.

"Mind your head" the Doctor warned soon before the door opened.

They all, except Ian gathered together in the middle of the room. The Doctor on the ledge, Barbara standing with her back to the door and the two girls on the cloak. As the door opened Ian slid the piece of camera in place at the base of the door before rolling back to the middle of the room to sit beside the cloak.

"Take this" the Dalek said holding out a tray with food and Susan did as asked.

As the Dalek started to back out Barbara moved closer to the door, the mudball carefully hidden in her hands. The door started to close but got stuck on the piece of camera in the way. The door opened again, tried to close once more and when it opened the second time an alarm started to sound. The Dalek came back into the doorway and turned its eye downwards to the broken equipment effectively turning its back to Barbara.

"Now!" the Doctor said and Barbara moved swiftly slamming the mud in place on the Dalek's eyestalk.

Ian and the Doctor grabbed onto the tank as Barbara got pushed back and fell to the floor, Ian grabbing the whisk-like gun while the Doctor grabbed the sucker arm. The females meanwhile pulled away from the cloak as the Dalek started to spin.

"Keep away. Keep away from me" it said actually managing to shake the Doctor off but he was soon on his feet again. "Keep away from me! Keep away! Keep away!" it kept saying pushing Ian to the floor as well.

"The gun! The gun!" Ian called to the Doctor from where he had fallen before getting up once more.

The Dalek kept repeating the same thing as it pressed Ian against the wall with its sucker while the Doctor held onto its gun. The females meanwhile dragged the cloak behind the Dalek and Ian finally, with sucker at his throat, managed to kick the thing onto the cloak.

"Yes, I got it!" Susan said and the Doctor, who had fallen again, pulled himself to his feet with hands on the Dalek.

"Well done, Susan" he said, one hand holding the gun tightly.

"Ian, come on out of the way" Barbara said hurrying up to the man who had collapsed against the wall panting.

"Are you all right, Susan, Trixy?" the Doctor asked looking to the girls.

"Yes, Grandfather" Susan answered and Trixy nodded, looking wide-eyed in fascination at what was happening.

"Splendid, splendid" the Doctor said as Ian and Barbara moved out of the way of the gun.

"I think I'm all right. Swing it round. Keep out of the way, Susan" Ian said coming up beside the Doctor and everyone but Trixy, who was too short to be off much help, turned the Dalek around. "Now, I think it's worked. Take your hand off the gun" he said and Barbara carefully did as asked. "It has! It's worked!" there was laughter in Ian's voice as he spoke and they all smiled. "Now, there must be a catch here somewhere. I've found one" he said after a quick look around the things supposed neck. Ian and the Doctor lifted the lid just to quickly put it back in place again. "Susan, Barbara, Trixy, go in the corridor and keep a lookout"

"Yes" Barbara said and Susan was quick to follow her but Trixy stubbornly stayed.

"Trixy" Ian said nodding to the door but the girl just shook her head.

"Is it organic?" she asked and the Doctor partly lifted the lid again to check.

"I would assume so, you are not licking it" he added as he realised what she was thinking.

"What?" Ian asked. "Why would she?"

"Let her stay, she won't leave anyhow" the Doctor said waving away the question.

"You'll have to help me" Ian said to the Doctor and the two removed the lid, making sure Trixy couldn't see what was in the Dalek. Ian reached into it and released the creature inside from the machinery before they pushed it off the cloak again.

They wrapped the thing into the cloak and the Doctor disposed of it in a corner. Trixy hurried up to the open Dalek and managed to climb the side of it.

"Will you fit? It seems a bit tight" she said looking up at Ian

"We'll see. All clear in the corridor?" he asked turning towards the door briefly.

"Yes" coursed Susan and Barbara.

"I think there's a sentry down the other end of the corridor" Susan said lowly to Barbara.

"Well, they made such a terrible noise" the adult female said. "Ian, hurry"  
"Not much room for my legs, but try the top" Ian said having gotten into the Dalek and was now sitting there, not comfortably but workingly.  
"Barbara, Susan, give me a hand. Trixy, keep an eye out in the corridor" the Doctor said and the older females came back in to help. "Move it down gently" the Doctor said and they managed to secure the lid atop of Ian. "How is it?"

"It's very cramped indeed" Ian said sounding quite a bit like a Dalek.

"Well, can't you sound more like a Dalek?" the Doctor asked, somehow it was clear that he didn't like relying on other's acting skills for this.

"Yes, in a monotone" Barbara agreed, though she sounded much more comfortable with trusting Ian's acting skills. "You've heard them"

"Do you mean like this?" Ian said sounding so much like a Dalek that it sent chills up Trixy's spine but she grinned anyway.

"That's it" the Doctor said.

"Can you see all right?" Susan asked.

"No. There's some sort of screen" Ian said. "No, it's the mud. Wipe the mud off the lens"

"Oh, yes, all right" Susan said pulling out a napkin. "It's all clogged up. Is that better?"

"Yes, I can see now" Ian sad still sounding off even though he wasn't speaking in the Dalek voice.

"Good" Susan said.

"I can't make this thing move. It's full of controls" Ian said not really daring to touch anything with risk of finding the gun.  
"Don't worry, we'll push you" the Doctor said and they did as such turning him around towards the door.

"It moves well enough" the man said sounding like he shrugged.

"Surely they'll know that we're pushing you" Barbara said in concern.  
"No, no, no, it won't be suspicious at all" the Doctor disagreed but Trixy had to agree with Barbara, no one was going to fall for it if they had to push Ian like that to get the thing to move, three grown people pushing a Dalek around would not be suspicious at all.

"All right now, Susan, Barbara, Trixy. You get in front and pretend I'm taking you for questioning" Ian said and all three females agreed. "And Susan"

"Yes?" the supposed teenager asked.

"You lead us. You know the way" the man in the Dalek said.

"All right. This way, then" she said and both more or less fully grown females grabbed the plunger and started to pull Ian through the corridor.

"Have you ever been in a tank before?" Trixy asked in a low voice, snapping a quick picture on the Dalek as she suddenly remembered the camera.

"I drove one when I was doing my military service a few years ago, nothing like this though" Ian answered surprising them all.

"You know something a Dalek can never do?" Trixy asked a small grin forming on her face.

"Get up a staircase?" Susan suggested.

"That too, but I meant picking something off the floor" the child said and they all laughed slightly.

* * *

**Yay! Seventh chapter done! This sure is going to be long. Next chapter is hopefully soon underway. Until then!**


End file.
